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THE SCIENCE AND THE 
ART OF TEACHING 



THE SCIENCE 

AND THE 

ART OF TEACHING 



BY 

DANIEL WOLFORD LA RUE, Ph.D. 

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 
EAST STROUDSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA 




AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO 



. U-Uf 



Copyright, 1917, by 
Daniel Wolford La Rue 



All rights reserved 



LA RUE S SCI. AND ART OF TEACH, 
W. P. I 




MOV 10 1917 

©GI.A479045 



A FIRST WORD TO THE READER 

For some years, the substance of this book has been used 
by the author to introduce students to the work of teaching. 
The modern teacher is the social parent of his pupil. As 
such, he must have some vision of the whole great work of 
education, but from the teacher's standpoint. Such a gen- 
eral view is here presented. 

Emphasis is laid on the fact that teaching is becoming an 
efficient art, because we are learning to base it on scientific 
certainty, on the results of schoolroom experiment. The 
day of tradition and of merely personal authority has not 
altogether gone in education, but we can all help to speed 
its passing. Not only are the scientific spirit and ways of 
working emphasized, but teaching method is shown to be 
based on scientific method as found in the field and in the 
laboratory. 

Also emphasized in these pages is the necessity for adapt- 
ing the lesson to the learner. It is easy to give too much 
attention to subject matter. We are teaching children 
rather than branches of study, developing the mind rather 
than the matter. The child is made centrally prominent. 

Aside from material equipment, four factors determine 
the success of our educational efforts. They are (i) the 
child, (2) the teacher, (3) the world, especially as represented 
in the " course of study," and (4) the educational ideal. 
In Part One, which is introductory, these four topics are 
discussed in a general way; and each of the four remaining 

; 5 



A FIRST WORD TO THE READER 

Parts of the book is devoted to the teaching process as 
dependent on one of these four factors. 

Students who have had no introductory work in psychol- 
ogy will find the book adapted to them. Those who have 
had such an introduction are usually grateful for a review 
of the essentials. 

I am greatly indebted to Professors W. L. Gooding of 
Dickinson College, and R. M. Yerkes of Harvard Univer- 
sity, and especially to my wife, Mabel Guinnip La Rue, all 
of whom have read the manuscript and improved it much 
by their numerous and valuable suggestions. 

Daniel Wolford La Rue. 



CONTENTS 



PART ONE 
Nature of Teaching : Method and What Determines It 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Our Attitude toward Teaching 1 1 

II The Science and the Art of Teaching . . .22 

III Method and What Determines It .... 29 

IV The Educational Ideal . 36 

PART TWO 

Method as Determined by the Nature of the Child 

V Physical Education 47 

VI How the Mind Works 59 

VII Collecting Mental Material: Perception . . 68 

VIII Combining Mental Material: Association . 78 

IX Remembering and Imagining 91 

X Thinking 105 

XI Educating the Feelings 117 

XII Levels of Learning 128 

XIII The Learning Process . .138 

7 



I CONTENTS 

PART THREE 
Method as Related to the Teacher 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XIV Kinds of Lesson and How to Teach Them 157 
XV Kinds of Lesson and How to Teach Them 

{Continued) 166 

XVI Questioning 180 

XVII Planning the Lesson 190 

XVIII Teaching Self-education 202 

XIX Pedagogical Measurements 212 

PART FOUR 

Teaching as Conditioned by Subject Matter 

XX The Program of Studies. . . . . . .227 

XXI Science 239 

XXII Mathematics 250 

XXIII History 261 

XXIV Art . .." 274 

XXV Language 285 

PART FIVE 

Educational Practice as Influenced by the Educational 

Ideal 

XXVI Moral Education .297 

XXVII Vocational Education 307 

Bibliography 319 

Index 329 



PART ONE 

NATURE OF TEACHING: METHOD 
AND WHAT DETERMINES IT 



CHAPTER I 

OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD TEACHING 

"This spirit seeks only the fact, without the slightest regard to 
consequences; any twisting or obscuring of the fact to accommodate 
it to a preconceived theory, hope, or wish, any tampering with the 
actual result of investigation, is the unpardonable sin. It is a spirit 
at once humble and dauntless, patient of details, drawing indeed no 
distinction between great and small, but only between true and false; 
passionless but energetic, venturing into pathless wastes to bring back 
a fact, caring only for truth, candid as a still lake, expectant, un- 
fettered, and tireless. 

'"Work of his hand 
He nor commends nor grieves: 

Pleads for itself the fact ; 
As unrepenting nature leaves 
Her every act.'" * 

Exercise. — A parent asks me to tell him the best method 
for his child to use in committing to memory a poem of 
moderate length. I advise that the child learn thoroughly 
one line at a time, instead of taking one stanza at a time, 
or the whole piece as a unit. Am I right? How do you 
know? How can such things be found out? 

You are going to teach. Naturally, you want to succeed. 
But whether you succeed or fail depends greatly on the 
regard you have for your work, your attitude toward 
teaching. 

Every superintendent has to deal with teachers of various 



* Charles William Eliot, Educational Reform. Used by permission 
of The Century Company, publishers. 



t2 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

types: the salary-seeker, who, by keeping his eye on pay 
day, manages to pull through; the chore-boy teacher, who 
contrives, by much pottering, to use up all the time there 
is; the motion-maker, who feels that the whole business is 
guesswork so far as he is concerned, but who thinks the 
results ought to be there because he has worked hard, going 
through with everything the book and the superintendent 
told him to do. The teacher desired most of all is the 
scientific mind-maker, who, realizing that education, like 
everything else, is "governed by law," tries to learn that 
law and to follow its leading. 

Science as the key to success. — Not individuals only, 
but the whole race is coming to regard science as the key 
to success. The farmer, the physician, and the business 
man, who used to follow blindly the practice of their 
predecessors, or groped along under the guidance of their 
own guesses, are finding that science unlocks for them the 
gates of enterprise. " Knowledge is power." A comparison 
of the New England Primer with a first reader of modern 
make (see pages 14 and 15) is suggestive of what has been 
accomplished in education. 

When old means and methods fail us, we seek better ones, 
for we are engaged in a life-and-death game with the forces 
of our environment. Nature is often represented as a 
kindly mother, but she may also be pictured as a cruel 
stepmother. Whether we like it or not, our old Earth 
Mother deluges us with water, prostrates us with sunstrokes, 
poisons us with animal or plant venom, cracks our bones, 
swallows us up alive. But with all this terrible cruelty, 
she has her virtues; she is fairly regular in her habits, is 
invariably systematic and orderly. This is our only hope; 
by watching her carefully, we learn to foresee her opera- 



OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD TEACHING I3 

tions and save ourselves by planning ahead. So we have 
learned to store our food for the winter that is months away, 
but which is sure to come. So most of us endure vac- 
cination, to escape the disease which would otherwise 
endanger our lives. 

Science aims at (i) prediction and (2) control. — Some 
of nature's doings are still a blank mystery to us. No one 
can predict when the next earthquake will come, nor can 
he control it when it occurs. Neither can we control 
storms, but, failing in that, we are learning to foretell their 
coming and take to cover. "Forewarned is forearmed." 
Further, in many cases we not only, know what nature 
will do, but we even obtain control of some of her operations, 
her fires, electric currents, waterfalls, and the like, and make 
them work for us. 

Now education is just a matter of preparing a child to 
go out into the world and play a winning game with nature 
(and human nature). As teachers, we want to control the 
child's attention, memory, thought, and behavior, until he 
can take the steering wheel and guide himself; and instead 
of tinkering blindly at his personality, we should be able to 
foresee just how his mind will operate when we apply the 
electric spark of education. The physician, after his diag- 
nosis of a case, can give some "prognosis" of it, can tell 
what its future would be under various kinds of treatment. 
Some day, we teachers may be able to tell how our cases 
will turn out under our educational prescription. If ever 
we find out how to diagnose a pupil's personality and ad- 
minister the kind of education that will yield him the most 
usefulness and happiness, whether as merchant, mechanic, 
or professional man, it will be the greatest educational 
discovery ever known. 



14 



THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 









T 


tqzjfllb ^^® O* 


Young Timothy 
Learnt fin lo fly. 


U 


IS^steligMli 


V a s t h i for Pride, 
Was fet allele. 


w 

X 
Y 


Si 


m 


Whales in the Sea, 
GOD's Voice obey. 

Xluxes did die. 
And fo muft 1. 

While youth do chear 
Death may bo near. 




Z 


B(»ifTy ^a 


Z a c c a e ii s be 
Did Climb the Tree 
Our Lord to fee. 









A page of the New England Primer 

(Exact size) 

From the edition published by Mr. Ira Webster, 
of Hartford, in the year 1843 



OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD TEACHING 



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She went to Humpty Dumpty. 

"Please, Humpty Dumpty, 
help me find my sheep!" 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. 

Humpty Dumpty said, 
"Leave them alone, 
and they'll come home." 



Page from Story Hour Readers 

(Reduced one-fourth) 

Copyright, 191 3, by American Book Company 



1 6 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OE TEACHING 

Why science succeeds. — The reason why scientific prac- 
tice is crowding out other methods of work is because it 
excels in power of prediction and control. And the reason 
why it thus excels is because of its invincible method of 
finding out the truth. Since this scientific method is the 
basis of many of the methods used in the schoolroom, we 
should cultivate a warm acquaintance with it at once. 

An example of scientific investigation. — Suppose the 
problem is to find the cause of dew.* First we must know 
exactly what it is we are trying to accomplish: we must 
know precisely what we mean by dew. Shall it include the 
moisture found sometimes on the outside of a pitcher, or on 
windows, or on water pipes? These cases are so much alike 
that it is probably best to consider them all together. By 
dew, then, we shall mean the moisture that gathers on any 
substance exposed in the open air, when there is no rain or 
other apparent source for the dampness. 

Our second step is to get all possible facts in the case. 
We make many observations and experiments, consuming, 
it may be, weeks or months in the process. We find, time 
after time, that dew appears on objects which are under 
cover, such as the water pipe or the pitcher; that it may 
form on the under, as well as the upper surface of an object; 
that there is no dew on very cloudy nights; that if we forget 
to put up our carriage top dew may form on the seat, 
whereas, if the top is up the cushion is likely to remain dry; 
that dew gathers on substances which are dry inside, as 
well as on those that are damp, etc. 

Having collected a goodly treasury of facts that seem to 
have some bearing on the answer to our question, we next 

* For a more technical logical discussion of this investigation, see 
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Bk. Ill, Ch. IX, § 3. 



OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD TEACHING t j 

generalize, tie up our facts in bunches, so to speak, as the 
gardener does his radishes. For example, we may find that 
we have a hundred observations, all tending to show that 
dew forms most freely on clear nights. This generalization 
enables us to hold these hundred facts in a single mental 
grasp, and to place them as we please, without scattering 
our thoughts. 

We now make guesses, hypotheses as they are called, as 
to the probable cause of dew. Let us see what some of 
them are: 

i. Dew may fall from the sky, as rain does. But this 
cannot be true, for it was found that clear nights brought 
more dew than cloudy ones. Also, dew formed on our water 
pitcher, under cover, where anything like rain was out of 
the question. 

2. Dew may be forced out of the object on which it forms. 
Perhaps the water on the pitcher came through the glass. 
But on looking over the facts we find that dew forms on 
objects that are dry through and through. We may even 
repeat some of our experiments, to make sure of the 
matter. 

3. Dew may come from the- air and settle on objects. 
But why does it not form on all objects all the time? We 
recall the coldness of bedewed objects as compared with 
the temperature of the surrounding air; we know that cold 
contracts most things, — why may it not contract the air 
and squeeze out the moisture, which then settles on what- 
ever is near? We now have a theory that harmonizes all 
the facts: the cooling of moist air by a comparatively cold 
object squeezes out particles of moisture somewhat as if 
from a sponge; these particles unite to form drops on the 
object. We should not expect, then, to find dew on objects 

Science and Art of Teaching — 2 



iS THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OP TEACHING 

that are warmer than the air, nor on any object surrounded 
by perfectly dry air. 

We experiment further and find that this third hypothesis 
holds good under every test that our ingenuity can devise. 
So long as it continues to do so we shall accept it as "true." 

Finally, having established this new truth, we feel safe 
to use it as a basis for further reasoning. For example, we 
may be asked if there could be dew were there no air; 
whether there is dew on the moon, etc. Having learned the 
cause of dew, we can reason out pretty certain answers to 
such questions. 

Steps in scientific method. — While we have not gone into 
all the minute details of the investigation, we have fol- 
lowed, in general outline, the method used everywhere in 
science. We may sum up the steps as below: 

i. Finding a definite question to answer. 

2. Collecting instances, facts that seem likely to have 

something to do with the answer. 

3. Putting these facts into a class, or classes, and finding 

what can be said of them, that is, generalizing. 

4. Making guesses, hypotheses, based on the facts, sug- 

gesting possible explanations. 

5. Testing to see which hypothesis (if any) is the true one. 

6. Using the new truth as a basis for further reasoning. 
The steps need not be taken in just this order: one may 

have a pretty definite hypothesis when he begins the col- 
lecting of facts. Also, the scientist is sometimes compelled 
to halt before the process is finished. For example, he may 
make some important generalization, such as "All magnets 
attract iron but not wood," without being able to complete 
his work and show why this is so. But the steps enumerated 
above are the essential processes in scientific investigation. 



OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD TEACHING I0 

The scientific spirit in education. — Most noticeable in 
the scientific spirit is that it takes nobody's statement as 
the source of authority, but "seeks only the fact," insists 
that the voice of the facts shall silence all other voices. 
It forbids us to worship educational heroes and blindly 
obey them, or to do what "has always been done," when 
the facts in the case condemn such practice. 

Further, these facts are obtained for the most part, not 
by stumbling against them in the darkness of random ex- 
perience, but under the searchlight of carefully planned 
observation, accurately recorded. It is this devotion to 
scientific method that has built up our "experimental 
pedagogy," and much of what is known as educational 
psychology. The scientific educator demands that so far 
as possible all questions be settled, not by wrangling ar- 
gument, nor by appeal to personal authority, but by experi- 
ment. He believes that not nature only, but human nature 
as well is regular in its workings, is "subject to law," as we 
say, and that its laws can be worked out, slowly, with 
many sighs perhaps, but surely. Pedagogy needs more r 
investigators who will study the minds and bodies of 
children as keenly as others are studying the wings of 
moths and the mandibles of ants. 

If you take the scientific attitude toward teaching, you 
will realize that there is among teachers a great deal of fic- 
tion which is passing as truth. You will learn to distinguish 
the earnest truth seeker from the mere opinion peddler. 
You will learn that you cannot develop souls by a blue- 
print pattern furnished from the superintendent's office, 
but must have some insight yourself. You will be fearless, 
but tolerant of others; for the field of truth is too large to 
permit of monopoly. You will be critical, not for the sake 



20 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

of the criticism but for the sake of truth. You will not 
make believe; and if others do so, you will prick their 
bubbles with your logic. But you will not aim to win de- 
bates merely. Whether you confute another or acknowledge 
your own error, it will all be done in the same calm and 
happy spirit. Let facts be facts, whatever the conse- 
quences. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

i. What are the dangers of following blindly an educa- 
tional leader? 

2. Choose some thoroughly scientific person of your ac- 
quaintance and describe his attitude toward his work. Do 
you think he would quickly accept a new theory, or sub- 
stitute authority in place of scientific investigation? 

3. How does the position of school principal or superin- 
tendent differ from that of manager of a gang of laborers? 

4. Devise an experiment to determine whether children 
should recite spelling orally, or by writing, or both. 

5. Let each member of the class bring in one or more 
examples of a collection of something, such as coins or 
stamps, made by a child. See if any generalizations can 
be made, and whether such collections can be satisfactorily 
explained. 

6. Do you think your mind is " governed by law" ? Can 
you state any mental law? Where can you find statements 
of mental laws? 

7. Should we ever argue educational questions, if they 
are open to harmless experiment? What kind of question 
should be debated? 

8. Look up and report an account of an educational 
experiment. 

9. When you prove something of one triangle, is it sure 
to hold true of all triangles? Why? If you prove some- 



OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD TEACHING 2 i 

thing about one child, is it sure to hold true of all children? 
Why? 

10. Describe a pet or a friend, as you would for rhetorical 
purposes, and then give a scientific description of the same 
subject. What is the difference? Which appeals more to 
thought? To feeling? 

ii. Generalize about your school: make statements that 
will hold true of all the students; all the faculty; all subjects 
studied ; all athletic sports. 

12. Can you think of any outworn practices in schools, 
which you would like to change? How can you tell whether 
the change you propose would be wise? 

REFERENCES 

Boone, Richard Gause, Science of Education, Chs. XIII, XIV. 
O'Shea, M. V., Education as Adjustment, Chs. I, II. 
Rusk, Robert R., Introduction to Experimental Education, 
Ch. I. 

Yerkes, Robert M., Introduction to Psychology, Ch. XXX. 
Journal of Educational Psychology. 



CHAPTER II 

THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

"A science teaches us to know and an art to do, and all the more 
perfect sciences lead to the creation of corresponding useful arts." * 

Exercises. — (i) Toss a coin fifty times, recording the 
number of " heads" and of " tails." Repeat until you feel 
that you can state the law of the appearance of heads and 
tails. 

(2) State in advance how many heads and how many 
tails you expect to get if you toss fifty times more. Try it. 

(3) Number the next twenty-five throws and place oppo- 
site each number an k for head or a t for tail, according to 
what you expect in each case. Try it. 

With which did you succeed better, (2) or (3)? Can 
you tell why? 

It is not to be expected that every teacher will immedi- 
ately plunge into educational experiment on a large scale; 
but we can all appreciate and use the results mined out for 
us by others. We may even gain the chance to cooperate 
in such work, and so have a right to feel that we are of real 
service in creating a reliable science of education. 

What kind of science can we hope to establish? 

Sciences are either exact or approximate. — We have 
found that science is seeking the power to predict and to 
control. A science is exact, then, in so far as it can (a) 



* W. Stanley Jevons, Elementary Lessons in Logic. Used by per- 
mission of The Macmillan Company, publishers. 



THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 23 

predict events accurately, or (b) control them minutely. 
The astronomer can predict the uncontrollable movements 
of the heavenly bodies — say an eclipse — to the fraction of 
a second. Hence astronomy is an exact science. On the 
other hand we have learned to accept with some indulgence 
the predictions of the weather bureau: meteorology is not 
yet an exact science. Power of control is highly developed 
in physics and mechanics, while it is all too slowly coming 
into our grasp in such sciences as agriculture, medicine, and 
education. 

Education can be an approximate science. — The reason 
why some sciences cannot be exact is that there are so many 
unseen forces at work ; we fail to read what is going on be- 
hind nature's countenance. The weather cannot now be 
predicted precisely, because we have not as yet been able 
to isolate and measure every factor, cloud, wind, and what 
not, that affects weather conditions. So with the science 
of teaching: to attempt to measure accurately all the cur- 
rents of a child's mind is much like trying to measure all 
the petty tributaries of a river, when they have mingled 
well in the big stream, or the many minute and constantly 
changing parts of the flame of a candle. Besides, the 
child's mind is unstable; one little electric twinkle in the 
corner of the teacher's eye may destroy the whole value of 
an educational experiment. Such a twinkle would have no 
effect if one were experimenting on a piece of steel. 

To meet such difficulties the investigator depends upon 
spreading his work out, and covering enough ground 
roughly to make up for his lack of accurate knowledge of 
any one square yard of it. He barely touches a great many 
things, and can predict little, if at all, about any particular 
object we may point to. Such would be the experiment 



24 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

of raising five thousand hills of potatoes on an acre: the 
farmer cannot safely predict the future of any individual 
hill, but he can tell, in the long run, the average yield to 
expect from an acre, or even from the average hill of po- 
tatoes. So also the teacher, by collecting statistics from 
large classes year after year, can tell about how many pu- 
pils in a hundred are likely to make a satisfactory mark, 
and how many are likely to fail. But he cannot foretell, 
when first he meets a hundred new pupils, precisely who 
will win the highest marks, and who will not pass. 

Most of our results, then, apply to large groups only, 
not to any one pupil in particular. For example, suppose 
one group of a hundred children learn the spelling lessons 
by writing the words over and over, while another group 
learn the same words more quickly and lastingly, by having 
them placed on the board and making a mental picture of 
each, after its erasure. This would convince most of us 
that the second method is better than the first in teaching 
such groups of pupils. But if we were tutoring any indivi- 
dual child of the two hundred mentioned above, we could 
not be sure that we had the superior method for him, 
since some few learn better by the method of repeated 
writing. 

We can appreciate the situation if we recall how accu- 
rately a marksman can direct and control the course of his 
bullet; how the astronomer can foretell, to a second, when 
the sun will rise on any day we may name for him, ten years 
from now; and how helpless the teacher is either to predict 
or to control the career of the next pupil brought to him to 
be educated. But our disadvantage is not hopeless. We 
are making constant progress in the direction and control 
of pupils' lives. 



THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 25 

Teaching is an art, as well as a science. — In any under- 
taking, science is the brain and art the hand. "A science 
teaches us to know and an art to do." An art is a process, 
the process of changing some kind of raw material into a 
finished product. In teaching, the "raw material" is our 
pupils as they come to us; the finished product, these pu- 
pils when they leave us. If they have not undergone a real 
change for the better during their sojourn with us, we can 
hardly say we have taught at all, no matter what fine 
performances we have gone through in the schoolroom. 
We do not teach unless somebody learns. 

The science of teaching should enlighten the art. — Just 
as there are good farmers who do not understand their own 
farming, so there are successful teachers who can explain 
neither what they do nor why they do it. But they are in 
danger of being like the quack, who, because a pink pill 
cures one case, administers pink pills to all patients for all 
ailments. Silly as this may seem, such teaching is equally 
absurd. 

Nowadays, however, every art that hopes to maintain 
its standing seeks scientific guidance. As the best farmer 
is the well-informed agricultural artist, and the best physi- 
cian is the scientific practitioner, so the best teacher is 
the one who compasses both his science and his art, who 
uses both head and hand. Thoughtful art is applied 
science. 

The relation of education to other sciences. — Education 
is the little brother among sciences, and it would be foolish 
not to profit by what its older relatives have accomplished. 
All are working for the same general purpose, to find out the 
truth about ourselves and the world in which we live. We 
can learn much by keeping an eye on what our neighbor is 



26 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

doing in his field of investigation, while our hands are driv- 
ing our own work. 

Some of our nearest and most helpful neighbors are: the 
biologist, who attempts to explain the mystery of life; the 
physiologist, who shows us what each part of the body does 
for the body as a whole, — the work of heart, stomach, and 
nerve; the sociologist, who shows us what each part of the 
social body does for the people as a whole, — the work of 
school, church, government; the psychologist, who is meet- 
ing with some success in exploring the mazes of the mind. 
All these and many others labor alongside the educator in 
a spirit of cheerful cooperation. 

The teacher cannot be a specialist in all these fields. But 
he can reasonably hope to cull from them some of the facts 
that are largest, most significant, most illuminating for his 
educational endeavors. This shall be one of the aims in 
the pages that follow. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

i. Should you, as a teacher, prefer to receive detailed 
instructions intended to apply to every child, or to take the 
responsibility of treating each as you think fit? Why? 

2. A superintendent in one of our large cities laid out 
the daily geography lessons for each grade. Was this wise? 

3. How many students have been graduated from your 
school each year of the past ten years? Does the average 
tell you the number that will be graduated this year? Is 
the average likely to remain the same for the next ten years? 
How does this problem differ from that of foretelling the 
percentage of stormy days during the next year or the next 
ten years? 

4. It was once thought that, since the ocean became 
wanner the farther south one went, at the equator the 



THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 27 

water must boil. Explain the nature of this error. Is there 
any danger of similar errors in pedagogy? 

5. On automatic weighing machines, figures are often 
found stating "what you should weigh," according to your 
sex and height. What authority is back of these figures? 
Is there any reason why they should apply to you indi- 
vidually? 

6. Physical culturists often speak of "perfect" physical 
development: what is this? Whence do they obtain their 
idea of perfection? Have they a right to apply it to you? 
Why? 

7. Binet found that the average height of ten-year-old 
French boys was 130 centimeters, and their average weight 
28 kilograms. Should a French boy whose tenth -year 
height and weight fell below these figures be classed as 
subnormal? Why? 

8. What is a norm? Should teeth that are as healthy as 
the average be called normal? When should the norm be an 
average? When an ideal? 

9. Shall we ever be able to forecast the length of a human 
life scientifically? Why? 

10. Can you suggest any educational questions that are 
not open to experiment? 

1 1 . Resolved : That a teacher who has learned by experi- 
ence the art of teaching, but little of the science, is to be 
preferred to a normal or college graduate who has learned 
the science but not the art. Choose your side of this ques- 
tion and outline an argument. 

12. How do you find whether it is wrong to lie? To 
steal? Would you advocate experiment here? 

13. Galton found that the head of a certain child who had 
measles and other children's diseases ceased to grow during 
illness, and never recovered the lost growth. What do you 
think of the probability that this would hold true for all 
children? 



28 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

14. Which can safely be applied more widely, physical 
or mental statistics? Why? 

15. Who decides what we should try to make of our 
children finally? How should this be decided? 

16. Consider the comparative value of the following, as 
means of investigating any question: 

1. Unsystematic observations or trials of a thing — " ex- 

perience." 

2. Statistics: systematic, extensive observation or ex- 

periment; partial knowledge or control (or both) of 
that which determines the result. 

3. Intensive observation or experiment; comparatively 

full knowledge or control (or -both) of that which 

determines the result. 
Which is most reliable? Which has been most used in the 
investigation of educational questions? 

REFERENCES 

James, William, Talks to Teachers, I. 

O'Shea, M. V., Education as Adjustment, Ch. III. 

Rusk, Robert R., Introduction to Experimental Education, 
Ch. II. 

Thorndike, Edward L., Educational Psychology (1903), Ch, 
XV. 



CHAPTER III 

METHOD AND WHAT DETERMINES IT 

"Method is essential to the highest genius, whether it be in teach- 
ing or in other matters; and the results arrived at by clever men 
are largely due to the excellence of the method employed. 'If I 
have any advantage over other men,' says Descartes, 'I owe it to 
my method.'"* 

Exercise. — Before reading this chapter, try to teach 
some one something you know, — how to whistle, throw a 
ball, make a paper doll, solve arithmetical problems, or 
the like. 

Did you succeed? How do you know? How did you go 
about it, that is, what method did you use? Can you think 
of other methods that would bring the same result? How 
can you tell which is best? Make a list of the chief factors 
in the problem. What should determine the choice of the 
method to be used in any particular case? 

Nature of method. — A method, according to the root 
meaning of the word, is a way of getting somewhere, at- 
taining something we are after. It is an orderly procedure 
for the accomplishment of a definite end. As we can reach 
Rome by more than one road, so we can usually accomplish 
a given object in more than one way. These ways are 
methods. Physicians, for instance, have many ways, or 
methods of curing a patient. So with the farmer, who 
has different methods of crop raising; the cook, who knows 

* Joseph Landon, Principles and Practice of Teaching and Class 

Management. 

29 



30 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

several recipes for making pie; and the teacher, who under- 
stands the various methods of " making" mind. In every 
case there is an orderly process for the accomplishment of a 
definite end. 

What determines method? — Picture to yourself a me- 
chanic at his bench. Here we have (i) the material to be 
shaped, (2) tools with which to shape it, (3) the mechanic 
who wields the tools, and (4) the ideal which he holds in his 
head as a pattern by which to work. The way he sets to 
work, that is, his method, depends on all four. 

Similarly a teacher stands before his class. Here we have 
(i) the children, the material to be shaped; (2) branches 
of knowledge, the tools with which to work on the children; 
(3) the teacher who wields these tools; and (4) the ideal of 
the educated man or woman, which he holds in mind as a 
pattern. The mechanic's ideal is sometimes bodied forth on 
paper; and the teacher is fortunate if he can find a few ad- 
mirable people about the community, to serve as concrete 
models. At any rate, the way he sets to work, that is, his 
method, depends upon these four factors, which are present 
wherever a teacher plies his art. 

Some axioms for the teacher. — If we have succeeded in 
finding the four chief determiners of method, then there are 
certain important truths which force themselves upon us 
at this point, and which seem so nearly " self-evident " as 
almost to take the nature of axioms. 

1. The teacher should know the child. Bear it ever in 
mind that you are to teach children, rather than branches 
of study. Many teachers in their zeal to master subject 
matter forget this. As a result the human interest is lost 
from their work, and we hear the clatter of the educational 
machinery. As a meal is prepared for the eater of it, rather 



METHOD AND WHAT DETERMINES IT 31 

than for the chef or the waiter or even the whole culinary 
system of the kitchen, so all educational endeavor is neither 
for the teacher, the superintendent, the school board, nor 
the whole school system, but for the child. Take him away, 
and the whole structure would collapse. 

There is much danger of assuming blindly that we can 
understand children without study; or that they are just 
what we were when children; or that they are manikins, 
that is, like adults only smaller; or that they are all alike, 
and hence like some one child whom we know intimately; 
or that we can at least get the necessary knowledge of them 
from books. All these assumptions are wrong. We should 
look upon the child without prejudice or presumption, as 
we regard a tree or a toad: he is a natural object for scien- 
tific study. But let us add quickly that he belongs not 
only in the realm of nature, but in that of human nature as 
well, and hence is an object for sympathetic study. How- 
ever much else we may know, it is only after such study of 
those who are to be taught, that we are prepared to teach. 

2. The teacher should know the world. We have seen that 
the various branches of study constitute the teacher's kit of 
tools, the educational implements with which he works on 
the child. But they are toy tools in a way, for each is a 
reduced copy of something greater which is found outside of 
school. For example, school geography is but a miniature 
of the actual geography of the world outside. School work 
then is largely a substitute for something more "real," 
namely contact with the persons, places, and affairs of our 
whole vast environment. 

As most children cannot learn geography by extended 
travel, they must do the best they can with books, pictures, 
and models. As they have no actual dealings that involve 



32 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

the computing of interest and discount, other people's 
problems are thrust upon them for solution. Speaking 
generally, the less representative and artificial the school 
problems are, and the more the school is like the kind of 
world children should live in, the better the resulting educa- 
tion. 

The teacher must know the curriculum; but if this is all 
he knows, if he has not touched the larger and more real 
world through business or travel or some other kind of social 
intercourse, or if he knows it only through the touch of 
polite society, both he and his pupils are unfortunate. 

3. The teacher should know himself. The average person 
needs an introduction to himself; for few study them- 
selves sufficiently to become acquainted with their own per- 
sonalities. Many teachers of scholarly ambition are failing 
because they have neglected one study, self-study. One 
should know both his strong and his weak points, physical 
and mental. Before entering a vocation, he should take an 
inventory of his abilities and the demands of the vocation, 
and see how they compare. 

Having become a teacher, follow the lead of your greatest 
successes. Find the method you can use best, both inside 
and outside the schoolroom. Learn just what kind of 
working force you naturally are, and whether your per- 
sonality is such as to produce the good effect you intend. 
There is room for all to succeed, if only each can find the 
place where his inner forces can expend themselves with 
greatest freedom. 

4. The teacher should know the educational ideal. This is 
the star to which we hitch our wagon. What is the child to 
be and do, both as child and adult? As the architect has in 
his mind an ideal building, so should the teacher picture for 



METHOD AND WHAT DETERMINES IT 33 

himself an ideal personality. Not that the teacher aims to 
make all his pupils alike, any more than the architect aims 
to make all his buildings alike. It would become unbear- 
ably monotonous if one found himself the exact duplicate of 
every person he met ! 

It is not enough, however, to know the ideal as one knows 
the multiplication table : he must live it as he lives his songs 
and prayers. Strange to say, the most nearly perfect man 
seems to be one who is conscious of his imperfections and is 
ever trying to rid himself of them. In this sense, the 
teacher should be perfect. Best of all is the teacher who 
may well be described as aspiring, who has conceived a 
great purpose and who daily endeavors to accomplish it. 

Nevertheless it is the child himself who furnishes the 
ideal for his own education, as the rose furnishes the ideal 
for its own development. As we cannot change the rose 
into anything contrary to its nature, neither can we develop 
from a child anything that his natural constitution has not 
made possible. The strong-minded teacher who attempts 
to stamp himself upon the child instead of developing that 
child's personality may be the worst of all teachers. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. Which is more important, a good teacher or a good 
curriculum? Why? 

2. State the relation of general, to special methods. 

3. Suppose yourself a member of a board of education: 
what should then be your largest questions? What do 
you think most interests a superintendent of schools? A 
teacher? 

4. Make a list of several methods of teaching a child to 
read. Would you use the method by which you were 
taught? Why? 

Science and Art of Teaching — 3 



34 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

5. Education has been called the problem of the three 
M's, Man, Matter, and Method. Criticize this. 

6. Do you know of any cases where a child's welfare is 
being sacrificed to a system or a false ideal? If so, describe 
some of them. 

7. How can the following two statements be harmonized? 
(a) The more the school is like the world, the better the 
education, (b) When an individual is educated by direct 
contact with the world, his education is likely to be patchy, 
unsystematic, and incomplete. 

8. Why need the teacher have an educational ideal, if 
each child has an inborn ideal into which he is developing? 

9. Should a father map out a definite career for his in- 
fant son? Why? 

10. Galton states that parents and children usually 
" understand the ways of one another more intimately than 
is possible to persons not of the same blood, and the child 
instinctively assimilates the habits and ways of thought of 
its parents." If this is true, comment on the value of home 
teaching as compared with that of the school, 

11. In the same connection, Galton says: " Those teach- 
ings that conform to the natural aptitudes of the child leave 
much more enduring marks than others." In the light of 
this, which are likely to be the most valuable branches for 
a child? How can we discover which they are? 

12. State your ideal of manhood or womanhood. How 
came you by this ideal? 

13. Describe yourself as you would like to be at the age 
of forty or fifty. 

14. Describe the best teacher you have ever had. 

15. In order to "know the world," need one be experi- 
enced in all its evil? 

16. Give original illustrations of principle, law, system, 
method, rale, device. Define each, making use of the dic- 
tionary if necessary. Work out the relation of method to 
the other terms. 



METHOD AND WHAT DETERMINES IT 35 

17. Try to state the rule for whistling, without going 
through the act. Ask a good swimmer to tell you, when 
he is out of water, exactly how he swims. What do your 
results show? 

18. Should we take it for granted that one who can do a 
thing well can therefore teach it well? Does ability to quote 
rules prove the ability to perform the corresponding opera- 
tions? Give instances to prove your answer. 

19. Young teachers usually wish to be told many devices, 
while those who teach them generally regard laws and 
principles as of first importance. Which is right? Can you 
think of any way of satisfying both sides? 

REFERENCES 

Bagley, William Chandler, The Educative Process, Ch. I. 
Bolton, Frederick Elmer, Principles of Education, Ch. I. 
Dewey, John, My Pedagogic Creed, Article IV. 
Pyle, William Henry, Outlines of Educational Psychology, Ch. i. 
Strayer, George Drayton, Brief Course in the Teaching Proc- 
ess, Ch. II. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 

"Both in school and college, diversity, not uniformity of product 
should be the aim. The fortunate pupil or student is he who early dis- 
cerns his life career, and makes his school training or his school and 
college training an appropriate preparation for it. The vocation once 
known gives clear guidance to those knowledges and skills which will 
best contribute to success in it." * 

Exercise. — Which would you prefer to be, an uncivilized 
Indian with fine health and a strong probability of living to 
the age of seventy, or a well-educated white, doomed to die 
of tuberculosis at forty-five? Why? 

We have found that the first step in scientific procedure 
consists in forming a clear idea as to just what we are trying 
to do. Indeed that should be the first step in every enter- 
prise. When we undertake the education of children, then, 
we must first try to get a clear conception of the educa- 
tional ideal. 

Nothing receives more attention in theory, or less in 
practice, than the aim or purpose of education. But the 
pilot cannot box the compass in port and then stow it away 
during the voyage. He steers with his eye ever on the 
needle and the star. So our ideal in teaching should be 
kept so constantly before us that its light will illumine 
every league of our course. " Just what am I trying to ac- 

* Charles William Eliot, The Value During Education of the Life- 
Career Motive. 

36 



THE EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 37 

complish now?'' "What is the use of this?" "What am 
I here for, anyway?" These are the questions the teacher 
should ask himself over and over. To set sail without 
chart or compass is worse than to lie at anchor in the harbor. 

Education as change for the better. — We are trying to 
change the children; that much is certain. If education 
makes no difference, of what advantage is it? If we could 
subtract an uneducated boy from the same boy when he has 
become educated, the remainder would give the value of 
education, and indicate what it is we are trying to "add" 
to our pupils. Let us consider other instances, among 
objects, plants, and the lower animals, where there is 
change in the way of betterment, and find whether this 
helps us when we apply the idea to children. 

The sap of certain trees, when subjected to heat, makes 
rubber; but raw rubber of this kind loses its elasticity when 
exposed to the air. Crude rubber can be so changed by a 
certain method of treating it with sulphur, that it will re- 
main elastic, and it becomes more pliable, plastic, and 
durable. We thus develop the rubber, according to its own 
nature, so as to make it more useful. This seems like 
education. The rubber is graduated from the factory and 
receives its diploma in the form of the manufacturer's 
stamp. 

Similarly, when we develop a young cabbage plant in the 
garden, all we can do is to bring out the traits of the cabbage. 
No one can change it into a cauliflower. We "educate" it 
by developing it, according to its own nature, in the direc- 
tion of greatest usefulness. 

Canary birds are trained to expert singing by giving 
them a graded course in tone production. They imitate 
sweet-sounding bells, the resonant violin, the cultivated 



38 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

human voice, and the trills of their more advanced class- 
mates. When they are graduated from this canary con- 
servatory, they go out as certified singers. 

Wherever man works changes, in cooking food, raising 
vegetables, training dogs and horses, or educating children, 
his purpose is the same: to develop each, according to its 
nature, so as to make it most useful. 

To whom is the child useful? — In dealing with plants and 
the lower animals, we sacrifice them recklessly for our 
pleasure. We witness without a shudder the wanton be- 
heading of a carnation, and some of us can swallow a live 
oyster, or boil a living lobster, without compunction'. But 
the closer we come to our sensitive selves, the more sym- 
pathetic we grow; we never boil a live lamb. And though 
we train horses to serve us, we no longer permit them to be 
abused. These higher creatures have minds somewhat like 
our own. We realize that they are to some extent sharers 
of our common life, and therefore should not be made mere 
means to our pleasure, but have some right to their own 
career of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They 
are of use to themselves. 

This is emphatically the case with the precious little 
animals called children. A wit has described education as a 
means of defense against the rising generation. But if we 
seriously wished to do so, we could keep our children in the 
toils as we do our horses, could subdue them all as effec- 
tively. No ; we wish to develop each member of this rising 
generation according to his own nature, so as to make him 
most useful to himself, — and to others like him, his fellow 
men. 

We ought, then, to discover some very practical truths 
about the aim of education, by considering what our parents 



THE EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 39 

and teachers did for us. Certainly we do not wish that they 
had tried to make us all over according fo their own arbi- 
trary ideas. We can see that the only wise way was for them 
to accept us as nature formed us and make the most of the 
material, working along the lines nature laid down for us. 
Whether we were large or little, of great intellect or small, 
two-talent or ten-talent children, the only sensible thing for 
them to do was to develop us according to our own nature, 
in such a way as to make us most useful to ourselves and our 
fellow men. 

What the next generation expects from us. — There seem 
to be three weighty questions which we may well ask of our 
parents and teachers, and which each member of the rising 
generation (when it has risen) will put to us: 

1. "Have you given me health and the knowledge of how 
to care for it?" 

2. "Did you teach me morality, the art of living with my 
fellow men?" 

3. "Did you study my personal traits, my tastes, abil- 
ities, talents, aptitudes, tendencies, and help me to find the 
kind of life, the vocation, in which I could be most useful and 
happy?" 

These three questions point to the fact that education is of 
three essential kinds, physical, moral (or social), and voca- 
tional.* 

Physical education. — It is just as impossible to have a 
good mind without a good brain, as it is to have a good 
electric current without a good dynamo. But this good 
brain must be nourished by an abundance of rich, red blood; 



* These three kinds of education overlap somewhat. For instance, 
morality demands that one keep himself healthy if he mingles with 
others. But their overlappings only emphasize what is most essential. 



4© * THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

and such a blood stream is found only in a body whose 
organs do their duty. Great muscular strength is not neces- 
sary, but health is. The giant-minded invalid is a rare 
exception. Physical education constitutes the very corner 
stone of a good education. 

Moral education. — It would profit us little if, having 
learned to be healthy and intelligent animals, we fell to and 
destroyed each other; or if our passions were so rampant 
as to ruin our whole future through present recklessness 
and barbaric debauchery. We must learn sometimes to 
sacrifice a present satisfaction for the sake of a greater one 
to come; and to subordinate our personal selves, if neces- 
sary, that the social good may be increased. The art of 
conduct which we hope to teach to our pupils consists in 
so ordering private life and public business as to achieve 
the maximum of good for all. 

Vocational education. — Moral education furnishes merely 
guidance and control, not the fire, the drive, the force to be 
controlled. It is the track, and not the engine. For in- 
dividual motive power we must look largely to vocational 
purpose. 

Unfortunately, the term "vocational" is often used as if 
it meant "industrial," or "manual," or "wage-earning." 
One's vocation is his calling, be it preaching, fishing, or 
nailing on horseshoes. It should be one's inherent life 
purpose, what his Creator apparently made him for, what 
his talents fit him for, what he can do best, his opportunity 
not merely to gain money or reputation but to serve society. 
Right here should be the center drive of education, so far 
as the individual is concerned. We cannot insist too 
strongly on the primacy of vocational purpose. With 
some, this may mean nothing more than the procuring of 



THE EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 41 

the daily bread and butter; but in most cases the earning 
of a living will be but one pleasant part of the living of a life. 

What we expect from the next generation. — If the rising 
generation have a right to expect so much of us in these 
three directions, shall we not also expect much of them? 
When they arrived among us they found here a society of 
people pretty well organized, with all our social institutions, 
family, school, government, business, and the like, ready 
to serve them. Had they been born among Eskimos or 
Bushmen they would have opened their eyes on a very 
different environment. What we call their "social inheri- 
tance" would hardly have been worth quarreling about. 

Herein lies the charm of such stories as Robinson Crusoe, 
and The Man without a Country: they make us see the aw- 
fulness of losing our social inheritance. To live without 
family, friends, church, library, news, daily occupation, and 
human cooperation and sympathy is almost to be entombed 
alive. 

They who have received an education, having enjoyed 
such a goodly heritage, should aim to pass it on, not merely 
preserved intact, but enriched, increased. They are debtors 
who should pay their debt by serving society, — and society 
is all of us. Our educational ideal then is to develop each 
child, according to his nature, so as to make him most 
useful socially. 

However, we must not regard the developing process as a 
dull and grievous period, to be endured only for the bright 
prospect of social usefulness later. Education is com- 
monly thought of as "preparation for complete living." 
So it is; but the troublesome question arises, When does 
one attain to complete living? The child looks ever for- 
ward, the college graduate with equal eagerness expects a 



42 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

larger life, the dying man cherishes as his fondest hope the 
vision of a life beyond that shall continue .this fragmentary 
existence. Little children and rosebuds are both complete 
in their undeveloped way; both are doubtless all they were 
meant to be for the time. So life is at every stage complete, 
yet it is at every stage awaiting completion. 

Development may be figured as a cone expanding with- 
out limit. The aim is not merely the last step of the jour- 
ney, the final process in a series: it is present at all stages, 
even from the very beginning, as the law of life around 



which all our activities are organized. Our aim is something 
which is being constantly realized, yet which draws us ever 
onward : it is development for greater usefulness. 

The mischief of such an ideal as that of "preparation" 
is that it is likely to result "in deferred living, the sacrifice of 
childhood as an unreal thing, to be utilized merely, pos- 
sessing no ends of its own. So the college looks upon the 
preparatory school as merely preparatory; "real" education 
lies above and beyond. The high school has the same 
superior regard for the grammar school, and so on down. 
But we must not despise any stage of growth, nervously 
looking to the future as the only place where good is to be 
found. Every stage should be regarded as both an end ii? 



THE EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 43 

itself and a preparation for what is to follow. The world 
is coming to believe that the best preparation for the future, 
whether an immediate or a far-away future, is hearty, 
happy, worthy living right here and now. If under ordi- 
nary circumstances we cannot make the present seem good, 
we are not likely to succeed much better with the future we 
long for. 

What we all live for. — Every year of life, whether lived 
as cooing babe, or boy at school, or lover, or snowy-haired 
sage, should be worth living purely for its own sake. The 
end, the aim, the purpose of life, that which society as well 
as the individual lives for, is just life itself and ever more 
life. If it were mere brutish, animal life, we should not 
want it. No one would desire to be even the liveliest 
beast or sea serpent. Our yearning is for abundant soul 
life. Our deepest desire is, not only that we lose nothing of 
our present soul growth, but that we may constantly ex- 
pect larger thinking and greater joys. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. How came you by your educational ideal? 

2. State what you think must have been the educational 
ideals of some historical peoples, say the Greeks and 
Romans. 

3. Will our educational ideals be apt to satisfy posterity 
a hundred years from now? Why? 

4. State some differences between your social inheritance 
and that of your grandfather. Try to anticipate that of 
the grandchildren of the present generation. 

5. Is it worth while to build an ideal which you think is 
impossible of realization? Why? 

6. Who is likely to be more useful socially, one who 



44 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

insists on spending his time with us, or one who works 
quietly for our welfare? 

7. Give instances of reformers who have served society 
by defying and opposing it. 

8. Does your ideal mean, for the most part, having things, 
or being and doing? Illustrate. 

9. Should our purpose be to reduce the world to a state 
of standstill perfection? Or is it possible that there should 
be eternal progress, an ever- widening stream of good things? 

10. Try to define what you mean by the word "culture." 
Does it mean the same as education? 

1 1 . Do you know any young people who regard education 
as a means of escaping the hard work which the uneducated 
will have to perform? What, then, if education were 
universal? 

12. Can one develop according to his nature, if he is not 
allowed to choose his courses of study? What bearing has 
this on electives? 

REFERENCES 

Bagley, William Chandler, The Educative Process, Ch. III. 

Dewey, John, Ethical Principles Underlying Education, 
pp. 1-15. 

Eliot, Charles William, Educational Reform, Ch. XVIII. 

, "The Value during Education of the Life-career Mo- 
tive;" Proceedings of the National Education Association, 1910, 

pp. 133-141. 
O'Shea, M. V., Education as Adjustment, Chs. IV, V, VI. 
Spencer, Herbert, Education. 
Thorndike, Edward L., Education, Chs. I-III. 



PART TWO 

METHOD AS DETERMINED BY 
THE NATURE OF THE CHILD 



- CHAPTER V 

PHYSICAL EDUCATION 

"The crying need of the hour is to get educators to recognize the 
fundamental importance of all forms of physical training and bodily 
activity, as a basis for the cultivation of the higher mental and moral 
faculties." * 

Exercises. — Keep a record of the time spent by some 
child (or children) in (i) physical and (2) mental activity 
during a day in school, and a corresponding record for the 
same length of time when there is freedom for independent 
choice of activity. If possible, compare a week or a month 
in school with the same period during a long vacation, and 
study a considerable number of children, to make the re- 
sult more trustworthy. 

Which provides the better program, the school or the 
children? Why? 

Several investigators have found that there is usually an 
arrest or retardation of physical development during the first 
school year, and also that the death rate among children 
increases at this time.f What do you think causes this? 

Purpose of physical education. — Let us recall the three 
kinds of education found necessary for all, physical, moral, 
and vocational. One may develop and train his body (1) 
for the sake of body, or (2) for moral and social reasons, 
or (3) for vocational purposes. 

* Dudley A. Sargent, Physical Education. Used by permission of 
Ginn and Company, publishers. 

■f Robert R. Rusk, Introduction to Experimental Education, Ch. III. 

47 



/^ 



4$ THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

(i) While it is no mean thing to possess a fine form, and 
to enjoy the powerful play of large, rolling muscles, yet 
the greatest physical strength and the greatest mental 
strength are not necessarily found in the same body. It is a 
mistake to regard the body as a seductive and tempting 
enemy, to be starved and ill-treated; it is equally a mistake 
to suppose that heavy athletics will of itself insure the de- 
velopment of a great mind or a weighty personality. 

The body, then, should (i) furnish the basis, the support 
of mental life, and (2) serve as a vibrant, responsive in- 
strument for the expression of mind, as the violin aids in 
creating and expressing its music. 

(2) Physical culture has a direct effect on moral conduct. 
A successful digestive system and other internal organs are 
favorable to kindly feeling; and will finds a stable support 
in well-disciplined muscles and vigorous blood stream. No 
one whose habks of eating, sleeping, and exercising are 
very defective, is apt to remain thoroughly moral in other 
respects. 

(3) Various vocations require many different physical 
qualities, such as size, strength, endurance, agility, skill, 
and grace. It is unfortunate that some of these, usually 
strength and endurance, are often demanded in such excess 
as to interfere with the mental life. Indeed, not even 
the highest degrees of strength, activity, and grace are ever 
found in the same individual. However, let each be devel- 
oped " according to his nature"; there is abundant room 
for him who feels that he can serve society best by using 
his physical powers chiefly. 

But a man's value is graded by (1) the moral tone, (2) 
the energy, and (3) the intelligence and skill which he can 
throw into his work. All these qualities abide chiefly in 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 49 

the nervous system. Physical education, then, does not 
mean muscular education alone: we should work, first and 
foremost, for the development of the best possible nervous 
system. 

Relation between muscular and nervous development. — 
In some of the lower forms of animal life the nerve cells are 
not joined to form a "system" at all, but are formed in 
isolation in various parts of the body, imbedded in muscle. 
One may almost say it is muscle that calls brain into exist- 
ence; and throughout the animal kingdom there is a close 
relation between the two systems, nervous and muscular, 
in their development. The cells of the brain would re- 
main forever asleep, inactive, were they not stimulated from 
without. If an infant's sense organs and muscles could be 
prevented from sending messages to his brain, he would 
never have enough mind to deserve the name. 

Just how much of this waking-up process is due to the 
muscles we cannot tell, but it is certainly large. Puppies 
that are compelled to dig for their food develop larger and 
better brains than those which have their food thrown to 
them. Sargent found, during his four years' teaching at 
Yale University, that there never was a time when that 
division of his classes which ranked highest in scholarship 
did not stand first in the all-round work of the gymnasium. 

In no way known to science can any difference be dis- 
covered between sensory brain cells, which have to do with 
our thinking, and motor cells, which guide our movements. 
Mosso believes that thought power and the power of mus- 
cular control reside in the very same cells. He asserts that 
"the more mobile the extremities of an animal are, the more 
intelligent it is." He points out also that many great art- 
ists were apprenticed to goldsmiths, under whom they 

Science and Art of Teaching. — 4 



SO THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

practiced line handiwork. "I am convinced," he says,* 
that muscular movements have formed the omnipotence of 
genius." 

Gulick reminds us that from one third to one half the 
brain surface is concerned in making muscles contract, 
but he says that "this does not prevent these parts of the 
brain from being used in other ways also." He thinks the 
motor brain may be a sort of battery for the other centers, 
but furnishing endurance rather than force.f 

The conclusion is this: whenever we employ our muscles 
under the guidance of intelligence, we are either (i) waking 
up the very brain cells that do our thinking; or (2) we are 
improving the " batteries" on which these thinking cells 
depend for their efficiency. If the first is true, it furnishes 
one of the strongest of arguments for manual training and 
kindred arts. But in either case muscular activity, physi- 
cal education of some kind, is indispensable. 

Physical education should follow the order of muscular 
and nervous development. — The larger muscle groups 
develop first, with the consequence that the young child, 
instead of exercising isolated muscles, should be more of a 
unit of activity. First, the large muscles of the trunk should 
receive attention, then those of the limbs. The correspond- 
ing nerve centers develop in the same order. Nerve centers 
for the control of activities performed at birth are ready 
to function at birth. Says Gulick: "The motor centers for 
the control of the skeletal muscles develop in the order of 
their distance from the trunk; thus, shoulder before elbow, 



* Angelo Mosso, Psychic Processes and Muscular Exercise, pp. 383- 
407 of Clark University Decennial Celebration Volume, 1899. 

t Luther H. Gulick, Physical Education by Muscular Exercise, p. 19, 
Used by permission of Blakiston and Sons, publishers. 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 51 

elbow before wrist, wrist before fingers. . . . The interest 
the child shows in special forms of activity is an excellent 
guide to the order of development of the motor activities." 
This author's words are so clarifying that it seems wise 
to quote him at greater length : 

"This order of development of the nervous system is important 
with reference to educational gymnastics, because otherwise they are 
abnormal Nothing but disaster can be expected if we attempt to 
force motor education out of its natural order. The education of any 
part is best done when that part is ripening. If this is accomplished, 
the part may be further perfected at any time during later life. If it 
is not accomplished, the part can never be made to reach its highest 
development by later education. The development of the motor 
areas for the trunk takes place during the first two or three years of 
life. The arms and legs are pretty well under control at the age of five 
or six. The interest of boys in marbles; in all forms of machinery; in 
throwing, shooting, and similar exercises, indicates the growth of the 
finer motor areas between the years of seven and twelve. The interest 
of girls during the same years in sewing and playing with dolls, which 
involve the finer activities, is an indication in a similar direction. The 
activity of the speech center begins early, but has its greater develop- 
ment within the first three or four years. When special attention is 
given to specific exercises demanding skill in distal groups of muscles 
before the more proximal muscles have been trained, we often find 
neuroses supervening. Dr. Hartwell has made extended studies in 
regard to stammering and stuttering in this relation. In former days 
those destined for a musical career were put at their special work — for 
instance, on the violin — at as early an age as four; but experience has 
shown that such education ought not to be begun until the child is 
seven or eight years of age. This experience is in accord with the 
neurologic fact just mentioned, that the motor centers for the fingers 
and wrist begin to acquire special activity after the age of eight years. 
The selection of voluntary exercises for the development of this neu- 
romuscular mechanism ought, then, to be practically completed be- 
fore the boy or girl reaches the teens, for the apparatus is pretty well 
developed by that time. Gymnastics, so called, affect chiefly the 



52 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

larger groups of muscles. The finer groups concerned in independent 
finger movements, activities of the larynx, facial and tongue move- 
ments, are not trained by gymnastics; their exercise must of necessity 
come in other ways. The playing of games of children . . . involves 
the discipline of these motor centers. . . ." * 

Some general principles of physical exercise.f — i. The 

general effect of muscular exercise, that is the effect on the 
vital organs, is in proportion to the number of foot pounds 
of work performed. { We must use the largest and strongest 
muscles and muscle groups, in trunk, shoulders, and thighs, 
and make them work, if we wish to quicken the action of the 
heart and lungs. We get the best results, so far as health 
is concerned, not when we merely go through motions, such 
as finger flexions and gestures of a gentle nature, but when 
we push, pull, throw, lift something that furnishes a "load." 
When we move the body or its larger parts, as in rising on 
our toes, it can be made to furnish its own load. The load 
we give a muscle should vary according to health and 
strength, and with the length of time the muscle works. 
The longer it is active, the smaller should the load be. 

A good practical test to use during or after the exercise 
period, to tell whether there has been overwork, is to 
" notice the hands when held with fingers extended and 
free from each other, the arm being held away from the 
body. If the fingers are trembling, there has probably been 
too much effort." 

2. The position demanded by the muscles and ligaments 

* Luther H. Gulick, Physical Education by Muscular Exercise, 
pp. 20, 21. Used by permission of Blakiston and Sons, publishers. 

f For a fuller statement of these principles, see pp. 10-17 of Gulick's 
work, quoted above. 

J A foot pound of work is the amount of work performed in lifting 
one pound to the height of one foot. 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 53 

during exercise is likely to be continued during rest. More- 
over, the kind of power or skill demanded by an exercise 
will of course be developed by that exercise. Our muscular 
(and to some extent, mental) vocations stamp themselves 
in our bodies. 

3. When working for general effect, that is the effect on 
the vital organs, care should be taken not to cramp those 
organs. Effort causes the blood vessels to swell and in- 
creases internal pressure. This, if the organs are cramped, 
leads to labored and irregular heart action, and influences 
unfavorably, digestion and the peristaltic movement of the 
intestines. Under proper conditions the agitation of these 
organs, as by running, is very desirable. 

4. Oxygen breathed into the lungs is not necessarily used 
by the body, any more than is food when swallowed into 
the stomach. Bodily processes, especially exercise, should 
create a demand for these things. Of course, moving the 
diaphragm is one form of exercise, and unused air in the 
lungs is probably harmless. There is, however, no evidence 
to show that any considerable quantity of oxygen can be 
stored in the body and held for use as required; it must be 
breathed in from moment to moment, as it is needed. 

5. Consciousness is not necessary in order to secure the 
general effects of muscular exercise. One could exercise with 
profit when asleep or hypnotized, so far as the vital proc- 
esses are concerned. The more our exercise can be made 
automatic, the less the drain on our nerve energy. Nervous 
fatigue is closely related to the exhaustion of the higher 
brain centers; the lower centers do not tire easily. The best 
exercises for nervous people are those that can be made 
automatic, rhythmic, playful. 

Nervous children should not be given exercises that 



54 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

demand concentrated attention and quick response to com- 
mands. Wherever it is desirable to economize nervous 
force, there should be few directions, the exercises being 
taken largely by imitation, memory, or play. This shows 
how futile it is to expect to secure rest and recreation by 
turning from mental tasks to exercise that demands close 
attention and quick response in following commands. 
Experiment shows that such formal gymnastics are more 
fatiguing, to most children, than anything else in the curric- 
ulum save mathematics. 

6. Whenever a high degree of consciousness is for any 
reason necessary or desirable, it should be as pleasurable as 
possible. As a college student, Garfield found that working 
for wages in a carpenter shop would not take the place of 
the recreative exercises demanded by student life. The 
great value of games for children is at once apparent. The 
father is wrong when he argues that his son can take exer- 
cise just as profitably by splitting wood as by playing ball or 
skating. 

Individuality in physical education. — Physical culturists 
often speak of " perfect 5 ' development; but there is no one 
standard of physical perfection for all. We should not take 
too seriously the tables of averages and statistics of what 
one "ought" to weigh and measure at a given age or height. 
That is "perfect" for us which fulfils our purpose. There 
may be thousands of perfect human forms, all different, 
each answering its own purpose. Not all men should feel 
called to be very strong, nor all women to be very weak. 
Let each be developed, according to his nature, so as to 
make him most socially useful. 

Physical education for children. — The most important 
fact to build on here is that the child is for the most part 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 55 

instinctive in his actions. He is largely a bundle of racial 
habits that will have their way; he is full of stored-up 
charges of energy ready to go off with a bang, on due stim- 
ulation. 

Because of this reign of instinct — especially the instincts 
of play, imitation, and wandering — games, sports, " hikes, " 
and similar exercises must hold first place in the physical 
education of childhood and youth, especially if we are to 
secure that indispensable mental accompaniment, interest. 
Of course these exercises should be supervised, and they 
should often be gymnastic as well as recreative. 

Games need supplementing, however, with more carefully 
organized work. Many children who play much are still 
defective in form, shambling in gait, awkward in movement. 
But the index to the child's physical culture exercises should 
always be his developing instincts and interests. The order 
of the development of muscles and muscle groups has al- 
ready been indicated. 

Some day, perhaps, we shall be able to study each child 
with regard to his physical condition and habits, to see that 
he has information on topics pertaining to physical welfare, 
and to develop in him a worthy physical ideal. Work may 
be prescribed for him individually, work that will enter 
intimately into his personal life, and include a program of 
daily health habits, not omitting those practiced at home. 
Periodical physical examinations will reveal what is accom- 
plished. 

The teacher must learn the details of heating, lighting, 
ventilating, seating, posture, and other matters of school 
hygiene. She should make clear to the children all this 
health practice, and why it goes on, by informal talks, and 
by such permission to help as will make them feel that they 



56 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

are really participating citizens in a small hygienic common- 
wealth. By such means, and through parents' meetings, 
the homes can be invaded with hygienic ideas, and all be 
made to feel that health is as valuable at home as at school. 
Playgrounds. — We have found how much play means to a 
child, and playgrounds mean no less. It seems unbelievable 
that adults who were ever children should build school- 
houses tightly wedged in between other structures, like a 
man cramped in a crowd. We have forgotten that mul- 
titudes of children no longer have the play privileges at 
home that were enjoyed when the great majority lived in 
the country. Looked at from any angle, moral, social, 
economic, or pedagogic, the playground pays. Fortunately 
the movement towards adequate playgrounds is now wide- 
spread. We are fast reaching the conclusion that play 
space for the young — a square rod for each — is, if possible, 
more important than work space. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

i. Do you follow a personal daily program? If so, what 
place do you give to physical exercise? Have you planned, 
or had an expert plan for you, a program of physical 
culture? 

2. Observe and describe the gait and carriage of persons 
who are devoted to heavy athletics. Do you find the same 
characteristics in the case of all-round athletes? 

3. Was your exercise, when you were a child, properly 
conducted? If not, how could it have been improved? 

4. Which do you think is more favorable to brain develop- 
ment, great strength, or intricate, all-round muscular coor- 
dination? Why? 

5. Where would you expect to find the finer minds, in a 
group of football players or a group of tennis players? Why? 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION 57 

6. At one of our large universities a thousand dollars a 
year is spent on each athlete, while but four dollars a year 
is spent on the physical education of the average student. 
What meaning do you draw from this? 

7. Have you the kind of body and health you would like 
your pupils to possess? If not, how can you get them? 

8. It has been said that there are four types of student, 
the athlete, the sport, the scholar, and the idler. Does this 
agree with your observations? 

9. What differences have you noticed between the sports 
of boys and those of girls? Do you think you could teach 
boys to play the girls' games and vice versa? Why? 

10. How do you feel now with regard to the games you 
played as a child? Why? 

11. Select ten students who take very heavy exercise, 
ten who exercise daily but moderately, and ten who exer- 
cise very little. In which group do you find most muscle? 
Which group do you find most alert mentally? 

12. Note the following points concerning yourself (a) 
when you have neglected your exercise, and (b) when you 
have exercised properly: courage, kindly feeling for others, 
ability to concentrate, memory, thought power. 

REFERENCES 

Bancroft, Jessie Hubbell, School Gymnastics. 

Dodworth, Allen, Dancing and Us relation to Education and 
Social Life. 

Gulick, Luther Halsey, Physical Education by Muscular Exer- 
cise. 

, " Interest in Relation to Muscular Exercise "; American 

Physical Education Review, June, 1902. 

Hall, G. Stanley, Youth: Its Education, Regimen and Hy-, 
giene. 

Johnson, Geo. Ellsworth, Education by Plays and Games. 

McCurdy, James Huff, Bibliography of Physical Training, 



58 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Mero, Everett B., American Playgrounds. (Contains bib- 
liography.) 

Rapeer, Louis W. (Editor), Educational Hygiene. 

Rusk, Robert R., Introduction to Experimental Education, Ch. 
III. 

Sargent, Dudley A., Physical Education. 

, Health, Strength and Power. 

American Physical Education Review. (Files.) 



CHAPTER VI 

HOW THE MIND WORKS 

" Psychology is a science, and teaching is an art; and sciences never 
generate arts directly out of themselves. An intermediary inventive 
mind must make the application, by using its originality." 

"For the great majority of you a general view is enough, provided 
it be a true one; and such a general view, one may say, might almost 
be written on the palm of one's hand." * 

Exercise. — Think of anything you please, — a castle, a 
fairy palace, another moon for the earth. Analyze your 
idea. For example, tell all the sounds, colors (and dimen- 
sions), touches, smells, and tastes that can be experienced 
about your castle. Do you find any that have not, at some 
time, formed a part of your own experience? 

Before the discovery of America, do you think anyone 
ever dreamed of being attacked by Indians just like our 
American Indians? Why? 

Having dealt with the general method of caring for the 
child's body and making it a fit support for his mental 
powers, we turn now to a brief and sweeping view of these 
powers themselves. These powers are the child: he is not a 
body merely, with a mental lodger in the upper story of it; 
he is, ultimately, his thoughts and feelings. To know him, 
we must understand them, and that means that we must 
study psychology, the science of human nature. That we 

* William James, Talks to Teachers. Used by permission of Henry 
Holt and Company, publishers. 

59 



6o THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

shall do in the present chapter in an introductory way, 
preparing for the treatment later of various phases of mind 
and the method of dealing with them. 

The mental and the environmental. — All through our 
early education our attention is likely to be fixed on things 
outside our minds, on plants, animals, minerals, land, wa- 
ter, on everything that enters into our environment. But 
when we try to educate others, we have on our hands a new 
problem; we must know how their minds work. Even when 
the pupil is so confused over a lesson that he cannot tell 
where his trouble lies, the teacher must be quick to detect 
it and skillful to guide him through it. The best way to find 
help on this problem is to learn first how our own minds 
work. We must turn our attention from the environmental 
to the mental. 

We have all observed our own minds in a cursory kind of 
way, just as we all saw flowers before we studied botany. 
Even a small boy can tell whether he is hungry, or has a 
toothache; and hunger and pain are mental. Your friend's 
"How are you?" and the physician's "How do you feel to- 
day?" are really requests for you to introspect, literally 
look within, examine your own mind, and tell what you find 
there. But just as in botany we learn to look at the flowers 
more carefully and to give each plant its place in a plan that 
includes them all, so we must observe the mind minutely 
and find how all its machinery fits together. 

One of the largest and most important facts, and one of 
the easiest to observe, is that your mind is a kind of moving- 
picture machine. It is full of "pictures" of things found in 
the world around you, the mental pictures of the environ- 
mental. In the figure, let the circle represent the environ- 
ment, and let the brain facing it be yours. Then this brain 



HOW THE MIND WORKS 6 1 

contains your mind also, for mind dwells in the brain. 
T is any object in the outside world; / is the mental picture 




THE WORLD BRAIN: THE HOME OF MIND 

of this object. C is a color as it flashes before the eye; 
c is its mental duplicate. The object may last long after our 
mental photograph of it has faded; or we may preserve a 
clear mental picture of something long since destroyed, say 
the doll or the ball of childhood days. So we learn to sep- 
arate sharply between objects and our experience of objects. 
Objective and subjective. — These two words have a large 
use in the teacher's vocabulary. Objective refers to the 
object- world, the environmental; subjective to the mental, 
to the " subject" who has a given experience. Objective 
means " pertaining to the object experienced"; subjective 
means "pertaining to the experience itself." My thought 
of home is subjective; the home itself, objective. One's 
nose is objective; the smell of a rose, subjective. Subjective 
also is the pain in one's stomach, while the stomach itself 
is objective. * 

* If there is doubt as to whether anything is subjective or objective, 
we can always decide by this simple test: Could the thing in question, 
under any circumstances, be observed by others, as even one's heart, 
or one's stomach might be? Or is this, like my pain or my thoughts, 



62 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

The mind is like a factory. — A factory can only do its 
work by opening its doors to the outside world. Had these 
doors remained shut the factory would never have run. Its 
work consists in (i) taking in raw material, lumber, leather, 
or what not, and (2) working up this material into new prod- 
ucts, shoes, furniture, and the like. The factory cannot 
create any material outright; it can only take what comes 
and organize this into a new form. 

So the mind must open its doors of sight, hearing, and 
other senses to the outside world. Had these doors re- 
mained shut, the mind would have remained inactive and 
speechless, — perhaps we ought to say there would have 
been no mind, The work of our mental factory consists in 
(1) taking in raw material, sights, touches, sounds, and the 
like; and (2) working up this material into new products, 
poems, essays, conversations, thoughts, and imaginings of 
all kinds. The mind cannot create any such material out- 
right; it can only take what comes and organize this into a 
new form. 

Let us think of anything we please, say a winged horse 
with eyes of fire. Here is no new mental material, for we 
have seen horses, eyes, fire, wings. What the mind has 
contributed is a new arrangement of old bits of experience. 
Moving-picture films are sometimes cut up and pieced to- 
gether to make a new picture story. The mind, also, can 
do this cutting and piecing. Indeed, it can divide so mi- 
nutely and recombine so deftly as to form a patchwork pic- 
ture that would quite discourage a photographer. But it 
can make no thoroughly new film without exposure to the 
outside world. 



observable by me only? In other words, is it open to inspection by 
many, or introspection by one only? 



HOW THE MIND WORKS 63 

Perception and idea. — The taking-in process of our 
mental factory is called perception. The manufactured 
product always takes the form of ideas of some kind. 

When Wordsworth "saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffo- 
dils," he was making mental pictures rapidly, "ten thou- 
sand" at a glance! In psychological language, he was per- 
ceiving. But all the senses may be used: one may put 
hand in pocket and perceive a coin by touch, may perceive 
the music of "Annie Laurie" by hearing, and so on. A 
perception is the freshly received experience of something 
in our presence. 

Later, our poet, lying on his couch "in vacant or in pen- 
sive mood," finds that the daffodils still "flash upon the 
inward eye," though the outward eye is closed. He now has 
ideas of the daffodils. An idea is a mental picture of some- 
thing not present to the senses. But such revived experi- 
ence need not always be a mere copy of something we have 
previously perceived; we can form new pictures from our 
old mental material, as in the case of the winged horse with 
the fiery eyes. How is this possible? 

Sensation. — It becomes possible by separating our men- 
tal materials into very simple parts and. then recombining 
these parts, somewhat as a galley of type in a printing office 
may be broken into "pi" and then set up in new forms. 
These bits of experience are called sensations. Examples are 
the color blue, or red, a simple smell, taste, touch, tone. As 
was said before, these fragments of experience always come 
to us in the first place, through some "door" of our mental 
factory, that is, through some bodily organ. A sensation 
is a simple bit of experience which we refer to some par- 
ticular bodily organ. 

There is a striking difference, however, between a sensa- 



64 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

tion as we receive it fresh through the sense organ, and the 
same sensation revived later without using the sense organ. 
The first, the fresh sensation, is called an impression; the 
revived impression is an image. By day, you get an impres- 
sion of the blue of the sky, clear, strong, persistent. At 
night, perhaps, with eyes closed, you call back the image 
of the blue, but find it hazy, faded, and flickering, as com- 
pared with its original. An image, then, is a resurrected 
impression, a kind of ghost of an impression. * 

Composition of perceptions and ideas. — In the figure, let 
each small circle stand for a sensation. The solid black 
circles represent impressions; the open ones represent the 
weaker, revived impressions, that is, images. 





PERCEPTION IDEA 

From what has been said it is evident that a perception 
is composed of impressions. You perceive an apple. In 
the perception one of the black dots represents the taste 

* We must take care not to be misled by some of the common uses of 
these words. A sensation is not a wave of excitement that rolls 
through a whole community, as when some startling news "creates a 
sensation." An impression is not a lump judgment, such as we have 
when we speak of our "general impression" of a person or place. An 
image is not a complex picture; we do not image a whole automobile, 
but only its color, or the sound of its horn. Our idea of the automobile 
is composed of many images. As a sensation is perfectly simple, so is 
an impression, which is a freshly received sensation, and an image, an 
old sensation. 



HOW THE MIND WORKS 65 

of the apple, others its color, touch, smell, size, etc. A 
perception is a group of impressions.* 

Similarly, an idea is composed of images. You have an 
idea of a golden apple. Here the images are those of golden 
color, hardness, and so on. An idea is a group of images. 

An outline of the making of ideas.— It may help us to 
form a clearer view of the processes involved in our mental 
manufacturing, if we arrange them in tabular form. 

f Seeing 
1. Collecting material: Perception \ Hearing 

[Etc. 



2. Combining material: Association 



Remembering 

Imagining 

Thinking 

It is evident, from the second part of this table, that when 
we associate our ideas (more accurately, our sensations), 
they unite to form memories, imaginings, thoughts. Asso- 
ciation and its three forms will be studied in the chapters 
that follow. 

What of " the feelings " ? — In the outline above there is 
no mention of anything like joy, sorrow, love, or hate, 
commonly spoken of as "the feelings." And these are very 
important. But we shall find that for the most part the 
child's " feelings" follow the course of his sensations, per- 
ceptions, and ideas. For example, show him a flag and you 
arouse his patriotism. Because of this, in educating children 
we are more directly and immediately concerned with 

* There are cases in which a single impression, such as the smell of 
an apple in the dark, arouses many images, and seems, with these 
images, to form a perception. But a "pure perception," as it is some- 
times called, is composed of impressions only. 
Science and Art of Teaching — 5 



66 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

perceptions and ideas than with the "feelings." Accord- 
ingly we shall leave their study until later. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

i. Does a story such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 
take you into a world that is entirely new? Prove your an- 
swer. 

2. What is the difference between mind and brain? Why 
are not minds preserved in museums, as bodies are? Can- 
not a library or a collection of phonograph records be 
thought of as a museum of minds? 

3. Is there sound at Niagara Falls when no one is there to 
hear it? (A hint: Objective, or physical sound consists of 
vibrations in the air; subjective, psychological sound con- 
sists of sensations.) 

4. Analyze some of your common perceptions into their 
constituent impressions. 

5. Do you receive any impressions that the lower animals 
cannot have? Wherein lies the great difference between 
your mental factory and theirs? 

6. Make a list of toys for young children, designed to 
give them all the different impressions possible through 
every sense organ. 

7 . Make up two lists, one appropriately headed Objective, 
the other Subjective. 

8. Mention games which seem to you valuable for the 
cultivation of impression, perception, or imagery. 

9. When one sees a new or curious object, why does he 
usually wish to handle it? Answer in terms of impressions. 

10. Why does modern teaching make so much use of 
pictures, models, and handwork? 

11. In a southern climate, where snow never falls, how 
would you teach the subject of snow? 

12. A philanthropic gentleman wishes to employ you to 



HOW THE MIND WORKS by 

teach color to children who have been blind from birth. 
Will you accept the position? 

13. In your study of literature, note how much depends 
on keenness of impression and vividness of imagery. 

Consider the following: 

"When Napoleon saw Moscow burn, it could not have been more 
brilliant than when I saw the fourteen hundred turrets aflame with 
the sunset; and there were roofs of gold . . . and architecture of all 
colors mingling the brown of autumnal forests and the blue of summer 
heavens, and the conflagration of morning skies, and the emerald of 
rich grass, and the foam of tossing seas." 

T. De Witt Talmage, The Bells of Moscow. 

REFERENCES 

Angell, James Roland, Chapters from Modern Psychology. 

Betts, George Herbert, The Mind and Its Education, Ch. I. 

Galton, Francis, Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Develop- 
ment. 

James, William, Talks to Teachers, Chs. I-V. 

Titchener, Edward Bradford, Primer of Psychology, Chs. I, 
III, IV. 

Yerkes, Robert M., Introduction to Psychology, Chs. VI, XVII; 
also pp. 396-401. 



CHAPTER VII 

COLLECTING MENTAL MATERIAL: PERCEPTION 

"The training of the senses is a necessary preliminary to the training 
of the higher powers of mind. Comenius said: 'There is nothing in 
the mind that is not first in the senses.' Accurate sense perceptions 
are the best and indeed the only preliminaries to accurate reasoning. 
The mind can erect a substantial intellectual edifice upon a small basis 
of sensation, but there must be some sensory basis. The teacher who 
tries to train the powers of judgment and reasoning upon incomplete 
and inaccurate sense perceptions is like the man who built his house 
upon the sand. The wise teacher endeavors to build up the intel- 
lectual edifice upon the rock of well-ordered and carefully trained 
sense percepts." * 

Exercises. — Have you ever known of a painter who was 
blind from birth, or a musician who was congenitally deaf? 
Do you think such talent would be possible? x\re mutes 
usually incapable of speech, or more like those people who 
cannot use tools because they have not learned how? Try 
to explain such facts as you find. 

Draw (or describe) from memory some object with which 
you are familiar, giving many details. Compare your 
production with the original. Explain your success or 
failure. 

Poverty of the pupil's mind. — Frequently we fail in 
teaching because our pupils have in their minds no material 
from which to manufacture the ideas we are trying to teach 

* Dexter and Garlick, Psychology in the Schoolroom. Used by per- 
mission of Longmans, Green and Company, publishers. 

68 



COLLECTING MENTAL MATERIAL 69 

them. One investigation * showed that about half the 
children did not know a sheep, or a river, or the origin of 
butter; more than one third did not know what clouds were, 
and nearly two thirds did not recognize a spade. Some 
stated that butterflies make butter, or that it comes from 
buttercups, and that kittens grow on pussy willows. 

From such studies, G. Stanley Hall concludes it is unsafe 
for a teacher to assume that children, when they enter 
school, know much of anything that will help them in their 
school tasks. He thinks the wisest thing a parent can do 
before sending a child to school is to get him acquainted 
with natural objects, especially those found in the country. 
He even goes so far as to say that a child at the age of five or 
six may get more education from a few days spent in the 
country, than from a term or two of school without such 
contact with the country. 

Clearly, the child's perceptive powers are in danger of 
being too little exercised. 

Objects before words* — If we view education superficially 
we may be tempted to think that, like Hamlet's reading, it 
is just a matter of "words, words, words." But words 
give us only secondhand information; the words of another 
can have no meaning for us except in terms of our own di- 
rect experience. Even pictures are misunderstood. Chil- 
dren who have never seen a cow sometimes think, from 
looking at a picture in a primer, that a cow is about as 
large as a mouse. Objects before words, in education; we 
must practice perception first. 

It is amusing to hold up two fingers before a class of 
students and ask them to interpret the sign. Hardly a girl 
knows the meaning, while among the boys a grin goes 
* G. Stanley Hall, Aspects of Child Life and Education, Ch. I. 



70 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

round. It is evident at once that the grinners have passed 
through some experience which the non-grinners have not 
enjoyed, and that the two fingers are a sign of that expe- 
rience. The girls do not understand because they have 
never had the experience, have never used this sign as a 
cryptic invitation to "go swimming!" A sign, without the 
experience for which it stands, is meaningless. 

Now all words are signs, and like the swimming signal 
are meaningless, unless one has had the experience they are 
designed to call up. It is easier to carry words around with 
us than to carry the objects for which they stand, just as it 
is easier to carry money, the symbol of value, than to load 
ourselves down with the valuables themselves. For this 
reason we learn, in time, to use words as substitutes for 
things. 

To illustrate: A child of a year or so frequently plays with 
a ball and at the same time hears the word "ball" used re- 
peatedly. The impressions (redness, roundness, etc.) re- 
ceived from the ball come to be associated with the word, so 
that either calls up the other. On hearing the word "ball" 
when the object is not in his presence, the perception is 
revived in the form of an idea. The word is a sign which 
brings back the old experience; and if pronounced to others 
who have had similar experience, it is to them a sign of what 
the speaker has in his mind. 

But if the original impressions have never been received, 
it is as impossible for a word to call up an image, as it is for a 
photographer to find a picture on the sensitive plate which 
has never been exposed. Impression must precede image. 
This is one of the first truths in teaching. Of course some 
objects we have- never seen are sufficiently like those we 
have seen to enable us to imagine the unseen with some 



COLLECTING MENTAL MATERIAL 71 

success. But the man blind from birth cannot be taught 
color, nor can the congenitally deaf appreciate tone, as we 
who hear, know it. Whatever the range and vividness of 
our imagination, it can never supply the lack of a large 
amount of first-hand experience. 

"Feed the growing human being," says James, "feed him 
with the sort of experience for which from year to year he 
shows a natural craving, and he will develop in adult life a 
sounder sort of mental tissue, even though he may seem to 
be 'wasting' a great deal of his growing time, in the eyes of 
those for whom the only channels of learning are books and 
verbally communicated information." * 

Keep the sense organs in order. — If the child is to obtain 
news of the external world he must have efficient organs 
through which to acquire it. Children who have defective 
eyes or ears are not likely to suspect that they cannot see or 
hear so well as others, and pathetic cases are all too fre- 
quent, of young sufferers who have gone on for years vainly 
struggling to hold their place in competition with normal 
children. 

It often requires a special test to reveal, even to the 
practiced teacher, the fact that some of her pupils cannot 
see the blackboard plainly or hear an ordinary voice dis- 
tinctly. Simple tests for eye and ear are easily given, and 
should be applied by the teacher even if not required in her 
school system. f 



* William James, Talks to Teachers, p. 148. Used by permission of 
Henry Holt and Company, publishers. 

f For a discussion of these and related matters, from the practical 
standpoint of the teacher, see Everyday Pedagogy, by Lillian I. Lincoln. 
For a complete list of educational tests, discussed from the stand- 
point of the technical scientist, see Guy Montrose Whipple's Manual 
of Mental and Physical Tests, 



72 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Test cards for the eye, with directions for using them, can 
be secured from your local or state superintendent, or from 
any optician. Ears can be tested sufficiently for schoolroom 
purposes by placing the pupil at a distance of twenty feet, 
with his back toward you (to prevent lip reading), and 
asking him to repeat what you say. Use a low tone or a 
loud whisper. Test each ear separately by having him 
hold his hand closely over the unused ear. 

Cases of serious defect, or of apparent disease, should be 
tactfully reported to parents. 

Sense training. — Sense training, that is, the general exer- 
cise of the senses for no particular purpose except to wake 
up the senses, is valuable for infants. It is to be hoped that 
the time will come when all mothers will start their chil- 
dren's education with such happy exercises long before 
school age. The eyes of the one- or two-year-old should be 
presented with all the colors and with pleasing combina- 
tions of color; his ears with all the tones of the scale, mel- 
odies, and harmonies; his skin and muscles with objects that 
give him great variety of touch and movement. Even 
smell and taste should not be neglected. If such sense 
training is not provided at home, we must furnish it at 
school. For the child, this is a warm and lively world of 
things that bounce, slide, roll, run, squawk, boom, clatter, 
sing, flash, flutter, shimmer, and thrill, — in other words, a 
world of perceptions. 

But sense training of this general kind should never be 
given a prominent place in school exercises for normal 
children. It is too much like musical training which teaches 
us to play no instrument in particular, but bids us bang and 
thrum and blow a few notes on each, to wake up the musical 
faculty in general. 






COLLECTING MENTAL MATERIAL 73 

Perception with a purpose. — We have learned that the 
scientist, before he sets to work to collect material, usually 
knows what he is to collect it for. A problem is to be solved, 
a project worked out; he is like the builder who has a gap 
in his wall and is searching for a stone of correct shape to 
fill it. 

It is just as useless for a child as it is for an adult, to 
attempt to perceive minutely everything in the environ- 
ment. The child, like the scientist, should observe with 
some question in mind. And this problem should be the 
pupil's problem, not merely a task imposed upon him by 
the teacher. Observations made just because we are di- 
rected to make them are not likely to electrify us very much : 
they must connect in some vital way with what we as in- 
dividuals actually want to do. 

"What decides the choice in observation is not what 
strikes the senses, not the intensity or liveliness of external 
stimuli, but the circle of interest of the child." .'.'." Any- 
thing which has no interest for the child may be seen a 
hundred or a thousand times without becoming a mental 
possession." * A boy is likely to observe the ice on the 
skating pond much more appreciatively than he does the 
moral mottoes on the schoolhouse walls. 

Further, by watching carefully what kinds of objects a 
child seeks and observes with most persistence and pleas- 
ure, we can obtain a good index to his personality. Nature 
has made every child a little specialist in his desires. It is 
true that he is usually so overpowered by the influence of 
his elders (on whom he must depend for his every gratifi- 



* Robert R. Rusk, Introduction to Experimental Education, pp. 73, 
76. Used by permission of Longmans, Green and Company, pub- 
lishers. 



74 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

cation, and even his life), that they can work up in him an 
interest in almost anything. But leave him to himself and 
he elects his own course.* 

Education proceeds most rapidly when the teacher pays 
the greatest possible heed to such natural selection; and the 
sum total of choices and their outcome gives us deep in- 
sight into the real nature of the little subject and his future 
possibilities. 

Perception lessons. — From what has preceded, we can 
draw the following practical directions: 

i. Make clear in your own mind and in the mind of the 
pupil, the purpose of the endeavor, what to look for. Stick 
to this purpose unless you find something of great and unu- 
sual importance that cannot wait for later attention. If a 
class is going on an excursion, a description, drawing, or 
sample of what is to be looked for will aid materially. A 
specific question or set of questions to be answered by ob- 
servation is likely to increase interest in the undertaking. 

2. Get at the real object whenever possible. Why stop 
with sand models and pictures of mountains if we can climb 
the eternal hills themselves? This means, of course, that 
we must make many excursions. The public must learn 
that pupils are not necessarily wasting their time when 
seen out of doors during school hours. The teacher must 
learn to conduct these excursions so as to waste no time. 

3. Use as many senses as can reasonably be called into 

play, but especially " the muscular sense," touch, sight, and 

* It is interesting to note the selection of activities of a four-year- 
old of my acquaintance, who has so far resisted all efforts to interest 
him in music and musical instruments, and makes no real attempt to 
sing, but will stand for twenty minutes at a stretch observing one of 
his butterflies, and will weep at its death. At the same time he likes 
stories of Indian boys better than those of pickaninnies, because the 
Indians are "fierce!" 



COLLECTING MENTAL MATERIAL 75 

hearing. Nor should the pupil wait for the teacher to point 
out all items of interest. Each should make a personal 
attack on the matter in his own way. 

4. Let the children do something about the situation, 
climb the hill, taste the apple, bounce the ball. Each may 
do something different, so long as there is order and har- 
mony and seriousness in it all; one may use his camera, 
another his sketchbook, another collect notes for a descrip- 
tion, another gather specimens. 

5. Let vocabulary grow with experience: use the new 
name while exploring the new objects. Then these new 
words will enter readily into the child's vocabulary, and 
littered later, will raise ideas of the objects. 

6. Much can be done in the way of training children to 
take in a large portion of the environment instantaneously, 
by requiring a report after permitting a glance at a number 
of objects in the hand or on a table, which are then covered 
again. Pictures may be used in the same way. Houdin's 
method with his son is of this nature.* 

Other mental processes may be aroused at pleasure during 
a perception lesson. We may revive ideas of other objects 
and experiences, and make comparisons. Feelings appro- 
priate to the occasion may be excited. For example, obser- 
vation of the rabbit may lead to consideration of its treat- 
ment as a pet. Later the objects observed may be made 



* "My son and I passed rapidly before a toy shop, or any other dis- 
playing a variety of wares, and cast an attentive glance upon it. A 
few steps farther on we drew paper and pencil from our pockets, and 
tried which could describe the greater number of objects seen in 
passing. I must own that my son reached a perfection far greater 
than mine, for he could often write down forty objects seen in passing, 
while I could scarce reach thirty. Often feeling vexed at this defeat, I 
would return to the shop and verify his statement, but he rarely made 
a mistake." Robert Houdin, Second Sight. 



76 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

the subject of conversation, writing, drawing, modeling, 
constructing. And finally the resulting experience may be 
used as material for thought. Laboratory work is really 
a use of the perceptive, or " objective" method, but largely 
as a stimulus for thinking. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. Suggest suitable object lessons for (a) mathematics, 
(b) science, (c) history, (d) language, (e) art. 

2. How can a country child best be taught concerning 
city life, and vice versa? 

3. What part should questioning play in the objective 
method? 

4. Write out a list of exercises for mothers to give their 
children of pre-school age, in order to develop all the senses. 

5. A child is left in your charge to be educated. How 
would you choose objects for his study? 

6. Tell some child you will buy him any object he selects 
in a ten-cent store. Does the result give you any insight 
into his nature? Would it if you could repeat the experi- 
ment many times? 

7. What do you think are the danger points of school 
excursions for purposes of observation? 

8. Is any special course in " sense training" or "object 
lessons" necessary? Or can all this be incorporated with the 
instruction in the usual branches? 

9. A child, being told to draw an object, returns next day 
with a photograph of it, taken by himself. Should this 
substitute be accepted? Give reasons. 

10. How do you feel when an entirely strange word is 
used in your presence, the word comestibles for example? 
Can you explain this feeling? 

11. Do you know of any people who have gathered much 



COLLECTING MENTAL MATERIAL 77 

information, but who seem to be unable to use it to ad- 
vantage? What may be the trouble in such cases? 

12. Which is likely to prove better in clearing up an ob- 
scure point for a class, the teacher's verbal explanation, or 
a concrete illustration with objects? Why? 

13. The King of Siam could not believe that water would 
become so hard as to hold up his elephants. Why was this? 

REFERENCES 

Bolton, Frederick Elmer, Principles of Education, Ch. XVII. 

Dexter and Garlick, Psychology in the Schoolroom, Chs. VI, 
VII. 

James, William, Talks to Teachers, Ch. XIII. 

Rusk, Robert R., Introduction to Experimental Education, 
Chs. V, VI. 

Schaeffer, Nathan C, Thinking and Learning to Think, 
Ch. III. 

Strayer, George Drayton, Brief Course in the Teaching Process , 
Ch. V. 

Thorndike, Edward L., Education, § $%. 



S 



CHAPTER VIII 

COMBINING MENTAL MATERIAL: ASSOCIATION 

"Thus, for instance, after looking at my clock just now (1879), I 
found myself thinking of a recent resolution in the Senate about our 
legal-tender notes. The clock called up the image of the man who had 
repaired its gong. He suggested the jeweller's shop where I had last 
seen him; that shop, some shirt studs which I had bought there; they, 
the value of gold and its recent decline; the latter, the equal value of 
greenbacks, and this, naturally, the question of how long they were to 
last, and of the Bayard proposition. Each of these images offered 
various points of interest. Those which formed the turning points of 
my thought are easily assigned. The gong was momentarily the most 
interesting part of the clock, because, having begun with a beautiful 
tone, it had become discordant and aroused disappointment. But 
for this, the clock might have suggested the friend who gave it to me, 
or any one of a thousand circumstances connected with clocks. The 
jeweller's shop suggested the studs, because they alone of all its con- 
tents were tinged with the egoistic interest of possession. This 
interest in the studs, their value, made me single out the material as 
its chief source, etc., to the end. Every reader who will arrest himself 
at any moment and say, 'How came I to be thinking of just this,' 
will be sure to trace a train of representations linked together by lines 
of contiguity and points of interest inextricably combined. This is 
the ordinary process of the association of ideas as it spontaneously 
goes on in average minds." * 

Exercise. — Pronounce, or have a friend pronounce for 
you, any common word, and observe carefully what it makes 
you "think of." Try to explain why the resulting images 



* William James, Principles of Psychology. Used by permission of 
Henry Holt and Company, publishers. 

78 



COMBINING MENTAL MATERIAL 79 

are called up, why these instead of others. Try this with 
the word "fire.'! 

We have likened the mind to a factory which receives 
material through the doorways of the senses and then 
works it up into various products. We have studied per- 
ception, the method of gathering this material, and shall 
now take up association, the combining or manufacturing 
process. 

It will be recalled (see page 63) that we separate our 
mental pictures into bits of experience called sensations, 
colors, tones, tastes, and the like. These unit bits of ex- 
perience are then re-combined, associated, to form new 
pictures. * How is this brought about? 

The machinery of association. — When we look at a road 
map of any much-traveled country, we find its highways 
intersecting and crisscrossing in all sorts of intricate ways. 
If we could have our brains charted, we should doubtless see 
a much more mazy labyrinth than any road map ever 
showed. No one knows that there is such a thing as a brain 
"path" — it would probably be nearer the truth to speak 
of brain wires; but the idea called up by paths and the 
way in which paths are worn makes it easy for us to picture 

* Bill Nye furnishes an illustration of this in his humorous theory as 
to how the portrait of any man whatever seems to be made up on 
demand in the printing office. There are supposed to be interchange- 
able parts, consisting of "one pair eyes (with glasses), one pair eyes 
(plain), one Roman nose, one Grecian nose, one turn-up nose, one set 
whiskers (full), one moustache, one pair side-whiskers, one chin, one 
set large ears, one set medium ears, one set small ears," etc., from all 
which can be made up the faces of "clergymen, murderers, senators, 
embezzlers, artists, dynamiters," etc. {Bill Nye's Red Book. Used by 
permission of Charles C. Thompson Company, publishers.) What- 
ever is done in newspaper offices, our minds have just such sets of 
images, and we make up our mental pictures on this very plan, albeit 
not quite so mechanically. 



80 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

to ourselves the part which the brain plays in the associa- 
tion process. 

When water flows with moderate force for a long time, 
or with great momentum for a short time, through some 
channel capable of erosion, there is cut out a passage which 
is likely to be followed by all succeeding streams. Similarly 
when a paper has been well creased by folding, it will there- 
after double most easily along the old lines. 

The brain forms habits, ways of acting, paths,— call 
them what we will. It does most easily what it has done 
before. To take a classic illustration: suppose the baby 
sees a candle, which excites brain cell C, and thereupon re- 
ceives a burn from it, which excites brain cell B; the next 
time he sees the candle a nervous current will sweep along 
the association fiber C-B, and baby will think at once of 
his former burn and be wiser than he was before. There 
is much truth, then, in the humorous remark that a man who 
is bitten twice by the same dog probably is not good for 
much else. If his brain is of such poor quality that an 
experience like that will not set up a lasting brain path, 
then nothing will ever stick; he is uneducable. The reason 
why experience is often the best teacher is because it is 
more certain to plow out such useful brain paths. We 
may recall here, too, that character first meant a stamp, 
scratch, or something of similar kind. One's character, as 
represented in his brain, is the sum total of the scratches, 
the brain paths found there. 

The laws of association. — The most general law of asso- 
ciation is that whenever two experiences have been in the 
mind together, each of them, on returning, tends to bring 
back the other. "Winter" calls up "snow"; "Christmas" 
brings to mind a picture of Santa Claus. 



COMBINING MENTAL MATERIAL 



Si 



But any idea, such as "Fourth of July," may have been 
experienced along with a host of others, as suggested by 
the diagram. Now, while all of these, according to our law, 
tend to come back to mind when the Fourth is mentioned, 
it would overtax our mental capacity to entertain them all 
at once. Only the strongest can survive in the struggle. 



"Safe and sane' 



Accident 



Fireworks 



Fourth 
of - 
July 



Independence 



Oratory 



Flag' 



Parade 



Ice Cream 



But what makes an idea strong? As teachers we want to 
know how to get "seven times eight" strongly associated 
with "fifty-six," "Captain John Smith" with "Virginia," 
"obedience" with "parents and teachers." 

Four further laws of association have been found, which 
explain why certain ideas crowd out their associates. These 
may be named the laws of : 

i. Frequency 

2. Recency 

3. Intensity 

4. Brain-set 

1. Let me put before you the word "bread" and you need 
not tell me what it calls to mind. Bread and butter have 
been so frequently in mind together, both as objects and as 

Science and Art of Teaching. — 6 



/ 

82 • THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

words, that most of us cannot escape the association. A 
path is worn and kept open by frequent travel, a sluice by 
frequent coursing of the water, a brain path by the frequent 
coursing of an idea. Repetitio mater studiorum, " Repeti- 
tion is the mother of learning," was the motto of the old 
school. 

2. Sluices and paths, including brain paths, tend to close 
with time. If a path has been opened or re-opened recently, 
the ideas that travel it have the advantage of a free high- 
way. We are all a little like putty, holding the imprint of 
what touched us last. The final speaker in the debate, 
all else being equal, has the best chance to win the judges. 
Your pupils will contrive to get a. glimpse of the lesson at 
the last possible moment before reciting, especially if they 
have not taken advantage of the law of frequency of repe- 
tition. 

3. The path that has been fairly plowed out by intense 
scraping, or the waterway worn by even the single passage 
of a torrent resulting from cloud-burst, may be deepest and 
most lasting. "I'll make you remember this," — so we 
threaten the infliction of something intense. When the 
word "fire" is presented, a few persons are always found who 
think first of some dangerous experience with fire which 
occurred, it may be, years ago. 

This law cannot be used constantly in teaching, but only 
in driving home rare and important truths. He who shouts 
all the while has no way left of emphasizing anything. 

4. Why are water channels so winding? And why do our 
associations take such curious twists? Much depends on 
the "lay of the land." Streams of water and streams of 
association follow the easiest way. Speak the word "note" 
in a company, and the business man thinks of legal paper, 



COMBINING MENTAL MATERIAL " S3 

the lover of a billet-doux, the musician of his scores. Each 
thus reveals the set of his brain, his dominant interest, his 
habitual center of attention. 

Brain-set may be for the moment only. If I have been 
reading of ghosts, every white streak, rustle, or hoot gives 
me a thrill. Or such a set may be of longer lasting. It is the 
banker's occupation, year in, year out, that makes him 
associate everything with money. One's whole nature 
may be set by heredity, and for life, as in the case of the 
"natural-born" artist, musician, or what not. The boy, 
Benjamin West, shears the cat's tail to make a paint- 




brush. Another person cannot tell the colors apart, but 
lives and thrives on mathematics.* 

Apperception. — Apperception is personal view, due to 
brain-set. For example, look at the figure above and tell 



* Considered in this large sense, our fourth sub-law of association 
no longer stands on the same level with the others; it underlies them. 
For what has the young man, a born follower of some vocation such 



84 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

what you think it represents. After you have decided, 
read the footnote.* 

Apperception is " taking in" anything, as a perception 
or an idea. But what happens when anything is taken in 
by the mind? The newcomer is not left standing alone and 
neglected. Old images hasten to welcome it, join hands 
with it, make it feel at home if possible.! So when you be- 
gan the study of algebra, you probably apperceived it as a 
kind of arithmetic with letters for figures. Another sub- 
ject, perhaps the beginning of Latin or geometry, may have 
seemed so entirely new and strange that you could not make 
it mean much of anything for a time. 

Suppose a child is set in our midst : what is he for each of 
us? To the teacher he is a learner, some one to be devel- 
oped into manhood; to the manufacturer he may be a cheap 
spindle tender; to the physician he is a possible patient 
whose health must be guarded; to his older sister he is 
perhaps a blundering nuisance who does not understand her 
love affairs ; to one boy he is a chum ; to another, an enemy 
to be feared; to his mother, joy unspeakable. So the child 

as electrical engineering, thought of most frequently, recently, in- 
tensely? His darling subject, in terms of which he interprets every- 
thing else. Our very thoughts are determined long before we think 
them. 

* By previous suggestion to the observer, this figure can be made to 
"look like" a picture frame, a lamp shade, a beveled mirror, a pyra- 
mid with the top cut off, a tunnel, or any one of a hundred other 
things. 

f In my classroom is a dummy book, bound as books usually are, 
and stamped on the back "Beauty Secrets." It is interesting, after a 
class has perceived a few real books, to watch the faces when this 
dummy is opened, revealing nothing but a mirror and a comic in- 
scription. Why the surprise? Because, as usual, they had images of 
the inside of the "book," just as we habitually image the legs of a 
table when we can actually see its top only. They apperceived the 
dummy as a book, but found they must apperceive it as a box. 



COMBINING MENTAL MATERIAL S5 

is apperceived, interpreted, given a meaning, according to 
our personal brain-set.* 

Apperception in teaching. — If anything on entering the 
mind stirs up no images, it has no meaning. Having a 
meaning signifies just that, — arousing associations. What 
does " picnic" or "birthday" mean to you? Just what you 
associate with it. If our teaching is to mean anything to 
the children, it must arouse many images in their minds. 
But what if perception has never brought into their mental 
factories the necessary kind of material? 

1. First of all then the pupil must have an "apperceptive 
basis," as it is called, for what he is to learn, something to 
hitch the new knowledge fast to. We always interpret the 
present in terms of our past experience, — what else is there 
to interpret it by? It is hard to make children in a flat 
country appreciate mountains, or those in a tropical climate 
appreciate snow, or to make city children appreciate country 
life. The child who has not worked with objects in arith- 
metic can put no meaning into the figures the teacher 
makes on the blackboard. Our first question should always 
be, "Have my pupils had practical experience enough to 
enable them to get the meaning of this lesson?" If they 
have not, we must give them the experience before we give 
the lesson. This is one of the values of excursions, dram- 
atization, laboratory work, experiments, practical percep- 
tive experience of all kinds. 

2. We must get down to the level of the child's associa- 



* A poetic example of apperception is found in Jest 'fore Christmas, 
by Eugene Field: 

"Father calls me William, sister calls me Will, 
Mother calls me Willie, but the fellers call me Bill!" 

Each name suggests the mental set of the one who uses it. 



§6 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

tions, to whatever apperceptive basis he has.* It is useless 
to waste time telling how poorly our pupils have been 
taught. We should find out how much (or little) they 
know, and begin where their knowledge leaves off. One 
who was sent to teach a semicivilized people the use of the 
steam engine, found that all attempts to teach them the 
science of the engine, the expansive power of steam, and the 
like, were lost on them. He at length succeeded by telling 
them that there is a giant in the engine who gets mad if 
you heat him, and who will blow everybody up if he is not 
given all he wants to drink; that he sticks out his arm (the 
piston rod) and works hard for you if you treat him well. 

Granted that a lesson contains anything really new, it is 
practically impossible for the teacher to make it too simple. 
The danger is usually all the other way. Good teachers are 
good explainers (though good explainers are not always good 
teachers) ; and explaining a thing is just putting it in such 
terms that your listener can apperceive it easily. Use 
images of seed and soil when you explain to the farmer; 
pictures from the shop for the mechanic; from familiar 
affairs of child life for the children. f 

* Try this on your apperception: "Now it is certain that the fun- 
damental category must include all entities and all processes whatso- 
ever; its name must have a universal denotation. But that which 
denotes everything cannot especially denote anything, that is, can 
connote nothing. That which all things are is not a feature or prop- 
erty by which some things are distinguished from any others. And 
furthermore, the universal predicate cannot be complex, for then it 
would have parts which would be entities and of which the universal 
predicate could not be predicated." 

All this is simple enough, when you are prepared for it. But if you 
find it obscure, you know just how your pupils will feel if you fail to 
reach down to their apperceptive level. 

1 1 once asked a class of about one hundred twenty-five Normal 
School students how many believed they had been appreciably in- 
fluenced by the morning exercises of their elementary-school days. 



COMBINING MENTAL MATERIAL 87 

3. Since one's brain-set, his fundamental purpose, is a 
matter of inheritance, we should not seek to fashion it at 
will. We inherit our memory, thought power, imagination, 
emotion, as we do our height, strength, and health powers. 
Conscientious teachers often feel guilty when they have 
exhausted their art and failed to arouse interest in all 
pupils for all subjects. It would in many cases, if not all, 
be a great misfortune if the well-meaning teacher succeeded 
in her effort to wrest the associative processes of these 
budding geniuses from the paths they love. We cannot tell 
ourselves too often that each child has his own sacred nature 
and way of developing. 

Sensation types.* — Suppose we all tell of a journey, or of a 
walk through the woods, or describe what we should regard 
as an ideal day of living. One would talk much of things 
seen; he is of the eye or visual type, " eye-minded" as we 
say. Another would speak mainly of things heard; he is of 
the ear or auditory type, " ear-minded." A third would 
describe in terms of touches and movements; he is of the 
tactual or tactual-motor type. A fourth may use all these 
kinds of material, as gathered by eye, ear, and touch (in- 
cluding movement); he is of the mixed type. Smell and 
taste do not figure prominently enough to give names to 
types. We can see at once that the whole matter rests on 
the sense organ we rely on most, and the resulting pre- 
dominance of a certain kind of mental material. Most of 

Only four raised their hands. I am inclined to think that our morning 
exercises often consist of such formal and mature readings, songs, and 
hymns, that they do not "strike home" with the children, that is are 
not effectively apperceived. 

* Various other terms are used in place of this, such as "memory 
types," "types of mental imagery," and the like. But "sensation 
type" seems to be the simplest and most appropriate term for all the 
facts. 



88 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

our pupils are of the visual type. We should teach them 
through their eyes chiefly, but of course not wholly. 

It is of high importance that we find out the sensation 
types of those pupils who learn with difficulty. The pupil 
of auditory type, who tries to spell our English words by 
sound, will have a hard time of it. He will succeed better if 
he can call up images of the way they look, or of the "feel" 
of the movements of tongue, lips, etc., necessary in naming 
their letters, or of the movements of the muscles in writing 
them. We can find out our pupils' sensation types, at least 
in a rough way, by observing their language, oral and 
written, and summing up the various kinds of image used. 
A special exercise might be devised for this purpose. 

The best minds, I believe, readily take in and associate 
all kinds of sensations; they are of the "mixed" type. Very 
likely we should so shape our exercises as to encourage our 
pupils to do the same, but we should leave them, at length, 
to succeed by their own method. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

i. Why is it hard to "teach an old dog new tricks"? 
Can an old man easily learn new truths? 

2. When a wee girl who had no shovel at home went 
calling, she spoke of the neighbor's fire shovel as a "big 
black spoon." Explain. 

3. Apperception has been called "the interpretation of 
the new in terms of the old." Show that this is true, and 
give an original illustration. 

4. Which sense organ do you rely on most in perceiving? 
Which kind of image do you employ chiefly in remembering? 

5. Why do the paradigms of Latin require so many more 
repetitions than the theorems of geometry? What apper- 
ceptive basis does the student usually have for each? 



COMBINING MENTAL MATERIAL 89 

6. Recall a few events which you feel you can " never 
forget ". What has given them such a strong associative set- 
ting? 

7. In England, boys were at one period taken to impor- 
tant boundary marks and there thoroughly whipped, that 
they might thereafter bear witness as to the landmark. 
Was this good psychological practice? Why? 

8. Why do we find in our language such expressions as 
"bread and butter," "thunder and lightning," "peaches 
and cream?" Explain, from the standpoint of association. 

9. "More than two thirds of all objects drawn by young 
children are decidedly in action," reports G. Stanley Hall. 
What does the brain-set or dominant interest of the children 
have to do with this? 

10. Explain why scenes on the stage seem so real to us. 
Do we "see" any more" than is actually there? 

11. Explain in terms of apperception, why the definition 
of a subject such as arithmetic should come at the end of the 
textbook, rather than at the beginning. 

12. Why is a man willing to be called a "lucky dog" 
when he is unwilling to be called a "cur?" What do we 
commonly associate with each? 

13. What is the difficulty, from the standpoint of asso- 
ciation, when we say that something (such as a strange 
word) has no meaning for us? What does it mean to have 
a meaning? 

14. There are said to be images or ideas which appear in 
consciousness, not because of their association with any- 
thing else, but mysteriously and independently. Does your 
experience lead you to accept the statement? If so, can you 
suggest an explanation in terms of brain activity? 

REFERENCES 

Betts, George Herbert, The Mind and Its Education, Ch. VII. 
Galton, Francis, Inquiries into Human Faculty; articles on 



go THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

"Mental Imagery," "Number Forms," "Associations," "An- 
techamber of Consciousness." 

James, William, Talks to Teachers, Ch. IV. 

Read, Melbourne Stuart, An Introductory Psychology, Ch. IX. 

Rooper, T. G., A Pot of Green Feathers. 

Schaeffer, Nathan C, Thinking and Learning to Think, 
Ch.XII. 



CHAPTER IX 

REMEMBERING AND IMAGINING 

"Every young man who thinks he must indulge in a little sowing of 
wild oats before he settles down to a correct life, and so deals in un- 
worthy thoughts and deeds, is putting a mortgage on his future; for 
he will find the inexorable machinery of his nervous system grinding 
the hated images of such things back into his mind, as surely as the 
mill returns to the sack of the miller what he feeds into the hopper. 
He may refuse to harbor these thoughts, but he can no more hinder 
their seeking admission to his mind than he can prevent the tramp 
from knocking at his door. He may drive such images from his mind 
the moment they are discovered, and indeed is guilty if he does not; 
but not taking offense at this rebuff, the unwelcome thought again 
seeks admission." * 

Exercises. — What did you do last Saturday? Write 
a brief description of the process by which you recall the 
day's doings. Aside from any evidence that may exist in 
the external world, such as the letters you wrote last Satur- 
day, etc., how do you know that you remember the day 
truthfully? 

Describe an ideal holiday. How does this process differ 
from remembering? 

At this point, it will help us to look again at our ''outline 
of the making of ideas." 

Seeing 
i. Collecting material : Perception \ Hearing 

Etc. 



* George Herbert Betts, The Mind and Its Education. Used by per- 
mission of D. Appleton and Company, publishers. 



92 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Remembering 

2. Combining material: Association • Imagining 

Thinking 
Having gathered our mental materials as perceptions, we 
work them up, associate them, into ideas. There are three 
forms of association: memory, imagination, and thought. 
In this chapter we shall study the first two. 

The study of these forms of association is an important 
one, for the great difference between the wise and the other- 
wise, or even between man and lower animals, lies not in the 
senses, not in the ability to take in mental material, but 
in the power to use it, to make something in our mental 
factory turn out such valuable and artistic products as true 
thoughts, useful inventions, pleasing poems. 

What is memory?— If we attempt to draw some object of 
familiar experience? we shall find it is not the lack of manual 
skill alone that prevents us from filling in all the details. 
Many of them have vanished from mind. Also, we are 
likely to include much that is not really " there." Mark 
Twain humorously said that when he was young he could 
remember anything, whether it ever happened or not; but 
as he was getting old, he should soon remember that only 
which never happened. No doubt we have all victimized 
ourselves and fallen into mild or deep disgrace by "re- 
membering" what never happened, as well as by failing to 
include in our mental sketchbook some very important 
items. 

Memory, then, does not photograph the past; it is not a 
duplicate, letter-press copy. The past as such is "lost and 
gone." Memory is a reconstruction of the past, plus a 
recognition of the past as past. The essential feature of 
such recognition is the feeling of familiarity. In the figure, 



REMEMBERING AND IMAGINING 93 

let Y be some experience of yesterday. V is our memory of 
that experience, less vivid, but with a halo of familiarity. 





I have, let us say, a life-size portrait of every member of 
my class. When the class has been graduated, it represents 
the lost and gone; it will never again assemble as before. 
I place each student's likeness — each standing for a mental 
image — in the seat he once occupied, and the whole feels 
familiar. This typifies my memory of the class. Let me 
now change the order, standing some of the portraits on 
their heads in corners and suspending others from the ceil- 
ing, and the whole feels strange, — I never saw my students 
in such positions. This typifies an act of imagination. It is 
only by the accompanying feeling that we can tell whether 
we are remembering or imagining. Memory is that form of 
association which is accompanied by a feeling of familiarity. 

Not memory, but memories. — To say that one has a good 
memory does not mean much unless we tell what it is good 
for. As no man can do all things well, so no memory can 
retain all things well. Most of us can remember easily 
along the lines of our greatest interests, but in other direc- 
tions with difficulty, or not at all. The pupil who holds 
readily every new tune he hears, may find that his arith- 
metic or history evaporates out of his mind during a night. 



94 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

If we are sensible, we shall not abuse nature for giving us 
poor memories because we cannot remember everything, 
but push forward fastest where our memories work best. 
As Betts says, "The best memory is the one which best serves 
its possessor" 

This fact of special memories for special branches conies 
out in experiments on memory and attempts to train the 
memory. Committing poetry will help us little, if at all, in 
remembering the facts of history or mathematics. We 
improve our memories along the direct line of our practice, 
but little along side lines. In the light of this, we can see the 
doubtful value of any general scheme of "memory train- 
ing," or of studies whose chief virtue is "to improve the 
memory," as compared with a pursuit designed to improve 
a memory, and that memory the one the individual wants 
to use in his vocation. The hoarding of memory gems may 
easily be overdone; sometimes a child does not want to be 
such a mental jeweler — or miser. Sympathize with him and 
spare him. 

Frequency, recency, intensity, brain-set. — These general 
laws of association hold true of memory, since memory is 
one kind of association. But as we have dealt with them 
elsewhere (Chapter VIII), we shall here only briefly indicate 
their application. 

The law of frequency demands much repetitive drill. 
The stair of learning has many monotonous steps, and there 
is no elevator. One who seeks the highest success in any line 
of endeavor should spend the odd moments reviving old 
items of knowledge and forming associations, fixing in mind 
prices, dates, faces, election returns, laws, formulas for 
action, whatever his vocation requires him to master. 

The law of recency may easily be abused. The public 



REMEMBERING AND IMAGINING 95 

speaker soon learns better than to keep up a mental re- 
hearsal of his speech to the moment of delivery; and the 
best pupil is one who can dispense with the last peep before 
the recitation begins. It is well to possess such a snapshot, 
emergency memory, but it is also wise not to use it except 
in emergencies. 

Intensity demands concentration, the strict focusing of 
the mind on the matter in hand. Attention has wisely been 
called the " mother of memory." Concentration is the 
student's master art. But one cannot concentrate on every 
sort of matter indifferently. In the long run we can center 
our energies on that only which appeals to our native, in- 
herited powers. 

The most favorable mental set involves a lively interest 
in the work, and the maintenance of a mood of calm con- 
fidence. Faith in one's ability and high resolve on mastery 
often mean the whole difference between success and 
failure. What is in line with one's largest natural interest 
is most easily mastered, since it most readily commands 
entire attention and forms many strong associations. 

The art of remembering. — The following precepts are 
fundamental. 

1. See that the physical conditions are as favorable as 
possible. It is commonly supposed, since James made the 
assertion, that one's brute force of memory, his native brain 
plasticity and power of retentiveness cannot be increased. 
Certainly, however, it can be diminished. Excesses, or 
bad habits of eating, sleeping, breathing, or exercising may 
ruin the best memory. The student who sits up all night 
to cram before examination is likely to find, at the critical 
moment, that the wires are down, so that he cannot even 
call up the knowledge he has. The only reason why some 



96 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

children appear weak-minded is because they are working 
with fatigued or impoverished brains. Here again the 
student must see that real wisdom means the care of body 
first. One should be fresh, not only when trying to remem- 
ber, but when committing to memory. 

2. Commit to the understanding before committing to 
memory. We are not practicing mental economy, not sav- 
ing time but losing it, when we dash nervously ahead in the 
hope of mastering by one quick effort of memory, what we 
are not willing to take the time to understand. Experiment 
shows that this precept, " Understand a thing before you 
memorize it," is the right rule for children also. They are 
often abused by the neglect of it.* 

Too often, in giving out poem work or some similar task, 

we merely throw it at our pupils, so to speak, with the 

direction to " learn it." Study of the selection, if it comes 

at all, comes afterward. This is the most slipshod, easy way 

for the teacher, and the hardest for the pupils. We may 

fall into this practice because of our own ignorance of the 

work, or because we over-estimate the attainments of our 

pupils. We must charge our minds with facts until we can 

make every word of the selection alive with associations. 

It should be well read, perhaps several times, by the teacher 

for her pupils. When the pupils themselves have read and 

*"Much the greater part of the work of memorizing ... is 
effected by explaining carefully to the pupils the matter to be learned 
and by cultivating habits of intelligent analysis and synthesis. Ef- 
ficiency in memory work depends mostly upon the systematic appre- 
hension and the rational comprehension of the significance of the 
matter. It is this aspect of memory which is capable of most develop- 
ment, and the teacher's efforts in this direction are bound to produce 
beneficial results. More time should be spent, especially in the lower 
classes, in the presentation of the matter, and less in mechanical repeti- 
tion." Robert R. Rusk, Introduction to Experimental Education, p. 87. 
Used by permission of Longmans, Green and Company, publishers. 



REMEMBERING AND IMAGINING ■ 97 

re-read it, it will almost have committed itself to memory.* 
Of course a child may practice an art successfully without 
knowing the science, may reduce to habit what he cannot 
fully explain, as the average child does and should do when 
he first works with our decimal system of numbers. But 
speaking generally, if a child is unable to understand a 
given selection, then the time has not come for him to 
memorize it. 

3. Since memory is based on habit, put the mind through 
the same kind of process in learning that it is supposed to 
follow in reproducing. We all know the alphabet, but none 
of us can say it backwards rapidly, unless he has learned it 
that way. The forgetful husband, before he leaves home, 
should vividly picture himself in the neighborhood of the 
shop where he is to buy his wife's goods; then, when he ap- 
proaches the spot, the sight of the surroundings will suggest 
the purchase: This process, strengthened by repetition, will 
prove almost infallible. The good elocutionist goes laugh- 
ing and crying through all the acts of her selection while 
committing it, — that is committing it. If the children fol- 
lowed a similar process at the knee of mother or teacher, we 
should hear fewer singsong recitations in public places. 
"The child knows better, for I have told him better," is the 
excuse of many a teacher or parent who thus discloses his 
ignorance of psychological practice. The only acceptable 
plea is, "The child knows better, for in addition to good 

* There is an old story of a little girl who wrote from memory: 
"My country tisuf thee, 
Sweet land of libeat tea," etc. 
She explained that "tisuf" was just put in to fill out the line, and that 
"libeat" was a brand of tea! 

A certain boy apperceived "earthquake" as "earth cake," a "great 
big cake of a very nice kind." 

Science and Art of Teaching. — 7 



gg the science and the art of teaching 

precepts I put him through the correct form many times, 
before he was allowed to come in contact with the incorrect 
form at all." 

4. Keep a mental filing system. As fast as experience 
comes, select what seems important and associate it to your 
chief purpose according to the demands of future use. The 
teacher with a lesson to prepare, the pupil with a composi- 
tion to write should seize upon the material found in con- 
versation or novel or newspaper, imagine himself using it 
at the proper moment, and associate it with other related 
matters in his mind.* 

If we fail to cultivate this selective sort of memory, 
" logical memory" as it is often called, our minds become 
like the contents of the school boy's pocket, a tangle which 
makes it necessary to pull out everything in order to get the 
one thing desired. This is the very trouble with those fussy 
people who weary us with multitudinous particulars: they 
fail to come to the point because there is no point — for 
them. We can help our pupils in overcoming this trouble 
by the way we question them. 

Minor memory rules. — 1. Commit by complete repeti- 
tions. Experiment shows this to be faster than committing 
by stanzas or paragraphs or sentences. The method of 
complete repetitions may not be the best way to attack an 



* For instance, just now my own thoughts run this way: "Read this 
morning a statement by a blind man who says the blind cannot sense 
colors through finger tips. My students in psychology sometimes 
assert the contrary. Next time this point comes up I shall remember 
this additional evidence for my side." So I put this note in my mental 
filing system, but forget a hundred other facts read during the same 
hour. I may put it in a paper filing system, too; for the filing cabinet 
of the office is only so much brain extension. The only reason why we 
have filing systems other than our brains is because our brains cannot 
stand the strain of our voluminous business. 



REMEMBERING AND IMAGINING 99 

extremely long selection, but it is best for passages of ordi- 
nary length. 

While learning, recall as much as possible without refer- 
ence to the book. When the selection is fairly well learned, 
you will find certain difficult points where you stick. Stop 
the complete repetitions and practice on these sticking points 
until they are mastered. Then resume complete repetitions. 

2. Divide your time wisely. Choose frequent, short 
study periods, rather than infrequent, prolonged concentra- 
tion. Four forty-five minute periods a week are better than 
two ninety-minute periods. Granted one hour a day to 
spend on a subject, we should divide it into two thirty- 
minute periods, or even three twenty-minute periods. How 
far this division of time can be carried profitably has not 
been discovered. 

3. Prolong drill beyond the point of first mastery. To 
cease effort as soon as a selection can be said over, is to fail 
to recall it under critical circumstances. Memory fades 
rapidly for a brief period closely following the learning 
process, after that much more slowly. 

4. Watch yourself as you work, and devise your own 
personal tricks of memorizing and recalling. Some people 
can remember best by using one sense only while memoriz- 
ing, as the eye; others prefer to read aloud, so as to use both 
eye and ear, etc. Again, probably each has his own best 
rate of committing to memory. Evening study for some 
students seems to be preferable to morning work. Rhythm, 
where it can be introduced, aids in recalling. 

The memory of the child. — It is commonly supposed 
that in childhood the power to memorize is better than at 
any time thereafter, and that therefore the child may rightly 
be required to lumber up his mind with vast bulks of mate- 



IOO THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

rial to be used in later years. The supposition is false and 
the resulting pedagogy vicious. Experiment shows not 
only that the power to memorize improves from childhood 
well into adult life, but also that whatever has no meaning 
for an individual is learned at an extravagant cost of time 
and nerve energy. Some people insist on the necessity of 
drilling in formulas such as are used throughout life; but if 
such formulas really have any lifelong necessity about them, 
they are likely to drill themselves in. Personally, I would 
not have a child learn anything, unless he could see for him- 
self that it meant something and was good for something.* 

Learning. — Memory is closely involved with habit and 
with acts of skill. Consequently further discussion of mem- 
ory will be found in the chapter on "The Learning Process. " 

The nature of imagination. — Imagination is just another 
kind of association. As memory is that form of association 
which is accompanied by the feeling of familiarity, so imagi- 
nation is that form of association which is marked by the 
feeling of strangeness, or unfamiliarity. I can imagine 

*In addition to what has been stated, the following important 
facts concerning the memory of the child have been fairly well estab- 
lished: that there are many special memories which develop at various 
rates, such as memories for objects, sounds, words, abstract ideas, 
etc.; that these special memories are likely to be highly efficient at 
age 10-12, less so at age 14-15; that boys can deal with abstract ideas 
more successfully than girls; that the memory of girls is superior to 
that of boys at age 1 1-14, but that the boy thereafter catches up in his 
development; that the memory for numbers and that for abstract 
ideas develop together, and both rather late; that lung capacity and 
muscular power are correlated with good memory; that the ability to 
memorize increases up to age 22-25, at least; that the most rapid 
learners show the highest degree of retentiveness; that the power to 
memorize can be improved by practice; that school training does not 
affect the power of memory to any considerable extent; that there is 
some connection between memory and general intelligence. 

Of course, these results are not applicable to any single individual, 
but are suggestive with regard to general practice. 



REMEMBERING AND IMAGINING 101 

myself President of the United States, but such a situation 
seems strange. I cannot conjure up the feeling of familiar- 
ity that would assure me I had ever held the office. 

Laws and limitations of imagination. — Once more, the 
laws of combination are the same, frequency, recency, 
intensity, and brain-set. What distinguishes imagination 
from memory is the kind of feeling that goes with each. 
If this feeling vanishes, we cannot tell whether our mental 
concoction is "really so," or whether we dreamed it. Chil- 
dren are often confused in this way and so utter "lies" with- 
out limit. When adults indulge in this sort of " lying," 
become adept at it, we call them poets, novelists, drama- 
tists. 

It is often asked whether we can imagine anything new. 
This is an ambiguous question: (i) Can we create new 
images at will? No ; we can exaggerate or dwarf or intensify 
or tone down the old ones, but the only way to get new 
images is through the use of the sense organs, by getting 
new impressions. Let one imagine what he will, a castle, 
a fairy, heaven; he will find his picture composed of the 
same old images, for we have but one stock of them, saved 
from the experiences of our past. (2) Can we combine these 
old images into new forms? Yes; and here we enjoy the 
dignity of something like creative power, for we can- origi- 
nate patterns, combinations of images which probably 
never have existed before since time began. 

The imagination, then, can create no new material, nor 
has it any new laws for combining old material. Its whole 
business is the recombination of old images into new patterns. 

Culture of the imagination. — As we have memories rather 
than a memory, so we have imaginations rather than an 
imagination. My imagination for history may be poor 



102 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

indeed, while my imagination for scientific matters may be 
more active, or my poetic imagination may blossom like 
the rose. The chief use to which anyone can put his imagi- 
nation is a vocational use. It should aid him chiefly in the 
accomplishment of his life purpose, mathematical, scien- 
tific, literary, or what not. 

Here, as in the case of memory, the best physical condi- 
tion is essential. The following rules may also be safely 
recommended: (i) Determine for what purpose the imagi- 
nation is to be used. (2) Collect an abundance of material 
of the kind most needed. If one wishes to write poetry, 
he should read a great deal of the kind of poetry he expects 
to produce. The inventor may well study the patent office 
reports. (3) Practice first by following the efforts of others, 
then independently. Imitative exercises will open the way 
for originality and beget creative activity. 

The imagination of the child. — We have already spoken 
of children's lies. These form one example of the luxurious 
exuberance of youthful imagination. Here is "the great 
loosening up process of the child's mind. He knocks apart 
the old prosaic blocks of everyday experience, and sets up 
new and marvelous combinations with delightful reckless- 
ness. He is using the very same power that enables the 
scientist to make his most startling hypotheses. It is largely 
this that creates in the child his boundless appetite for 
stories, and sets the youth ransacking the library for fiction; 
but merely to follow others forever in their psychic rambles 
is to be a mental slave. 

Experiment indicates that the following statements 
probably hold true of the child's imagination: that the 
younger children have the more vivid, concrete images, 
chiefly individual, and mostly visual; that each has his own 



REMEMBERING AND IMAGINING 103 

rate of association, which indicates nothing as to his intel- 
ligence; that it is unwise, generally, to urge children to "be 
quick," when they have a problem to imagine out; that 
most of the child's imagery results from experiences out of 
school; that his imagination tends to be vagrant and imita- 
tive, rather than systematic and creative. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1 . Do you think that those who have the keenest senses 
are likely to be the best associators? Why? 

2. Find individuals who have an unusual memory in 
some direction, and question them as to their methods. In 
how many such instances do you find reliance on any special 
" memory system" ? 

3. Along what line is your memory best? Does this line 
harmonize with your chief interests? 

4. Note in yourself the effect of the following on memory: 
digestion (and indigestion), exercise (or lack of it), wake- 
fulness, impure air, excitement. 

5. If you could choose never to forget anything, would 
you do so? Why? 

6. Which kind of image (visual, auditory, etc.) do you 
use most in remembering? What does this mean? 

7. Have some one pronounce for you the following syl- 
lables at the rate of about one per second : dap, vac, jaf , lar, 
bex, bup, hif, lis, mor, zuc, puj, dac. Write down as many 
as you can from memory. Do the same with twelve unre- 
lated, one-syllable words, and also with twelve one-syllable 
words that make a sentence. Compare the results. What 
do they mean? 

8. Write your name and address backward, letter by 
letter. Why is the process so slow, although you remem- 
ber the matter so well? 

9. Next time you read an exceptionally funny joke, 



104 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

imagine yourself telling it to some one else. Does it re- 
appear in consciousness later, at the right time? 

10. State your experience with cramming (for examina- 
tions, etc.). 

ii. If a child found difficulty in learning his history 
lesson, how could you help him by means of your knowledge 
of memory and imagination? 

12. Read part of a story, then stop reading and finish 
it in your own way. How does your result compare with 
the author's? 

13. Imagine and describe a world in which the laws and 
processes we are familiar with are reversed. 

14. Try to invent some article mentioned in a patent 
office report, such as a combined knife and fork for a one- 
armed man ; then turn to the report and see how your idea 
compares with the inventor's. 

REFERENCES 

Betts, George Herbert, The Mind and Its Education, Chs. 
VIII, IX. 

Rusk, Robert R., Introduction to Experimental Education, Chs. 
VII, VIII. 

Schaeffer, Nathan C, Thinking and Learning to Think, Ch. 
XL 

Tracy and Stimpfl, Psychology of Childhood, Ch. II, Sec- 
tions II, III, IV. 



CHAPTER X 
THINKING 

"The world within should be made to correspond with the world 
outside of us." * 

Exercises. — Try to foretell, not merely guess, the char- 
acter of some event of to-morrow, say the weather. Write 
an account of the process by which you reached your con- 
clusion. When the event occurs report whether you were 
correct, and why. 

Review Chapter I. 

What is thinking? — We have seen that mental materials 
can be put together, built up, associated into various forms 
— memory, imagination, thought. As memory is the form 
of association that is accompanied by the feeling of familiar- 
ity, and imagination is the form of association that is marked 
by the feeling of strangeness, newness, novelty, so thinking 
is the form of association that is characterized by the feel- 
ing of reliability. 

When I summon images of myself as a college student, 
the feeling of familiarity results; I am remembering. If 
the images are those of myself studying in Paris, the cold- 
ness of unfamiliarity sweeps in — this never happened; 
I am imagining. But let me count the cost of studying in 
Paris, compare it with my income, take stock of all I know 
or can find out concerning the proposed course, and there 
comes out the conclusion, "I can, or cannot, be a student in 

* Nathan C. Schaeffer, Thinking and Learning to Think- 

105 



106 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Paris." Whether the judgment is positive or negative, it 
arouses the feeling of reliability; it shapes my course, I am 
ready to act on it, to go or to stay. Even if I am swamped 
in the process, or have not sufficient facts on which to base 
a conclusion, there is still a feeling of reliability, I am sure 
that I do not wish to act without a further clearing up of 
the matter. * 

What is the thinker trying to do?— When the Harvard- 
Yale football game is played on the Yale grounds at New 
Haven, a miniature reproduction of the game is flashed on 
a screen before an audience in a great hall in Boston. The 
individual players are not seen, but the path of the ball 
can be followed in its course up and down the field, and the 
scores are counted. 

The actual field at Yale is the world we live in; the pic- 
ture field in Boston is our thought world with its images. 
In so far as we succeed in arranging our images to corre- 
spond with the arrangement of things and events in the 
outside world, we think truthfully; if we are "mixed up" 
and disorderly in the arrangement of our images, if they 
do not represent the external order, we are thinking errone- 
ously. 

The thinker, then, is trying to make mental pictures that 



* We can readily see how closely memory, imagination, and thought 
are interwoven. While we treat them separately for the sake of 
clearness, yet all memory, if put to the test, involves thinking; and 
thought is sometimes denned as a kind of imagination. If our memory 
is questioned, we at once proceed to think out the case; we resort to 
tests which are regarded as reliable, to prove it. My mother's letter 
reminds me that I should have written to her last week — or did I? 
The feeling of familiarity does not quite come. But I must have done 
so, for here she mentions what I wrote of my recent illness; this is 
reliable. Then I recall familiarly my words and the circumstances of 
the writing. 



THINKING 107 

represent truly something in the outside world. His effort 
is to make the "world within" "correspond with the world 
outside of us." * 

An example of ordinary thinking. — I learn that "shoot- 
ing stars," if dug up soon after they have fallen to earth, 
are sometimes found frozen fast in the ground. Why is 
this? Perhaps the ground was frozen where they fell? 
But no; this happens in the summer. Could the shock of 
striking cause cold in any way? Absurd; such collisions 
always cause heat. Perhaps the meteor is made of ice? But 
how can this be, when they are seen to be sizzling hot as 
they fall? I have heard of freezing by means of chemicals ! — 
that's it. The "star" must carry a chemical that causes it 
to freeze fast. 

What are the steps here? (1) A problem challenged me. 
(2) This problem started a chain of associations such as 
my limited stock of knowledge could furnish. (3) Some of 
these ideas were opposed by others, "knocked out," as it 
were, and given up as valueless. (4) One suggestion re- 
mains unopposed, since it agrees with all I know about the 
matter. This idea is accepted as true. 

Here we have pictured the usual course of our loose, 
everyday thinking— what we may almost call thoughtless 
thinking. 

Thorough Thinking. — To get a good sample of thorough 
thinking, let us review the steps in scientific method (see 
page 17). The steps in this method include: 

1. Getting a definite question to answer. 

2. Collecting instances, observing facts that seem 
likely to have something to do with the answer. 

* It is true, of course, that the mind can think about itself as well as 
about the external world, but the principle remains the same. 



loS THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

3. Putting these facts into a class or classes, and find- 
ing what can be said of them, that is, generalizing. 

4. Making guesses, hypotheses, based on the facts, 
suggesting possible explanations. 

5. Testing to see which hypothesis, if any, is the cor- 
rect one. 

6. Using the new truth as a basis for further reasoning. 
Science is said to be systematized common sense. Ev- 
idently, I need to be more systematic in my quick, 
common-sense solution of the mystery of the " shooting 
star." In the first place, the star is not really a star at all. 
Besides failing to get a definite question to answer, I have 
failed in the other steps; failed, finally, to test my accepted 
conclusion. I should either have examined a meteor to see 
if it bears a chemical that could cause freezing, or I should 
have held my judgment in suspense. But suspense is just 
what most of us cannot bear. 

The astronomer, picking his way carefully through many 
facts, finds that such meteors come from a region of almost 
unthinkable cold; that even when heated on the outside 
by passing so rapidly through the air they are still frigid 
within; that it is this inner cold which freezes some of the 
larger ones to the ground when they strike. 

Such an experience should be enough to convince me that 
it is rather rash to try to think along other lines than my 
own. My conclusions in astronomy are worth little. My 
mind is too hazy on such matters. 

From hazy to definite. — If the teacher's mind is hazy, 
what can we expect from the pupil! Every child begins 
with foggy ideas of big, vague bulks of things, seen dimly 
through the mist. The general process of the clearing up 
of his mind may be illustrated by the procedure of an artist 



THINKING 109 

in charcoal for whom I once sat. She began by darken- 
ing the whole picture surface; then, with deft strokes 
of her eraser and the artful touch of cunning fingers, she 
caused one mass after another to stand out from the original 
chaos and take shape, until finally there we all were, trees, 
clumps of bushes, the old roadway, the rock, my book, and 
myself. It is from such a dark and formless mass that the 
child, with much strenuous blundering and re-formation, 
gradually works out clear and meaningful mental pictures. 

So, when he attempts to form his idea of " man," it 
comes about that long before he tries to define just what 
the word shall mean for him, his consciousness is printed 
with all sizes and shapes and colors and conditions of men, 
like a blackboard which, carelessly erased from time to 
time, is written over again and again, the most frequently 
traced characters standing out most plainly. 

The forming of clear ideas. — If we would make our pupils 
clear thinkers we must develop in their minds clear ideas, 
especially ideas that take in whole groups or classes of 
things, such as noun, continent, star, animal, man. These 
class ideas are called concepts. 

Most of the concepts used by the average man are indefi- 
nite. They grow in their own natural and half lawless way, 
and are not clearly outlined, but consist, one might say, 
of ragged-edged splotches of meaning. Anyone who will 
try to tell, without referring to the dictionary, exactly 
what he means by tree, man, burglary, truth, or any one of 
thousands of other words he is recklessly using from day to 
day, will know just what is meant. 

How does a child get his general idea or concept of man? 
At an early age he hears the word "man" used frequently 
in the presence of one of these higher animals, and if his 



no THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

experience is very limited he may regard "man" as the in- 
dividual name of this one person. If so, man may include 
as a part of its necessary meaning, whiteness and whiskers. 
But later the term is heard applied to a black man without 
whiskers, etc. The situation may be suggested by a figure. 




At length, that which is common to all these men stamps 
itself on his mind more thoroughly than the accidents of 
color and whiskers; there is a central core, a common 
nucleus of meaning which "man" always suggests. 

The more of these overlapping circles there are, that is 
the more individuals the child perceives, the more thorough- 
going will his concept be. When he is building up the 
concept fruit t for example, he should have direct experience 
with many kinds of fruit, compare them at length, and try 
to tell what is common to them all. Fruit is the part of a 
plant that contains the seed. We should then test the idea 
by applying it: Are potatoes fruit? 

The steps in the very important process of forming a con- 



THINKING 



III 



cept are: (i) perceiving a number of samples, * the more 
the better; (2) comparing these samples; (3) generalizing, 
rinding what is common to all the individual samples per- 
ceived; (4) testing and applying the idea, practicing with it, 
so to speak, in order to get used to it and to be able to use it. 

Definitions. — Definitions play an important part in teach- 
ing. What is a definition? The word (from de and finis) 
means a boundary limit, a fence, as it were, which keeps 
in all objects of the sort defined, but keeps out all others, 
At the gate to this enclosure certain tests are applied to de- 
termine who or what may enter, as a ticket is required at 
the door of the theater. These tests are found in the defini- 
tion itself. 

We can illustrate this by means of a figure. Man is com- 




monly defined as a rational animal. Now many creatures 



* This process is sometimes called presentation, since the objects are 
" presented" to the senses. 



112 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

can pass the animal test and so find their way into the outer 
circle; but human beings only can pass the test of rationality 
and be admitted to the inner circle among men.* 

Making finished definitions is the work of a mature thinker, 
and should not be expected of children. But it is good for 
them to attempt such crude definitions as their tongues can 
turn off. It is easy to understand, now, why the definition 
should usually come at the end of the study of a topic, 
rather than at the beginning. It is the solid matter thrown 
down by a great deal of boiling. 

Children's thinking. — Experiment has contributed little, 
so far, to our knowledge of children's thinking. This field 
still lacks explorers. 

But since thinking is a form of association, we know at 
once that our old laws of frequency, recency, intensity, and 
brain-set must come into play. Thought is sometimes de- 
fined as the application of old experience to new problems. 
But what old experience is likely to be on hand to meet these 
fresh emergencies? Evidently that which, as related to the 
present problem, has been most frequently repeated, most 
recently lived, which was most intense, and which fitted in 
best with the dominant brain-set. By keeping these simple 
laws in mind, we can explain many of the child's thoughts 
which would otherwise appear vagrant and random; f and 



* The definition shows what is essential to each individual who is 
permitted to "pass." As there is often a difference of opinion as to 
what is essential, different definitions of the same term often appear. 
Man may be defined as a featherless biped (the definition offered by a 
Greek philosopher), or the animal with a chin, or the self-conscious 
animal. 

t Una Mary, having been told that her soul was the part of her that 
" could not be seen," later visited a museum, observed a skeleton and 
concluded that her skeleton must be her soul. (See References at end 
of chapter.) 



THINKING 113 

we can keep alive in his mind the facts he will need most 
in solving his problems.* 

As no one has a general power of memory that enables 
him to remember all things equally well, so no pupil can be 
expected to think along all lines. We are fortunate if we 
find even one- talent thinkers. And each pupil, so far as 
possible, should be given, or permitted, thought problems 
that appeal to him personally, that lie in the direction of 
what seems likely to be his specialty. 

Training to think. — 1. Let the child confront a problem 
that is real for him, not only as to kind but as to difficulty . 
How long do we adults ponder problems that are thrust 
upon us by our friends, and in which we take no vital 
interest? They check, rather than stimulate, our associa- 
tions. Children are similar. There is not likely to be real 
thinking except in the presence of a real wonder-situation. 
Making a violin from a cigar box may rouse more thinking 
than does the computing of cube root. 

2. See that the thinker has an abundance of material of 
the kind the solution requires. Giving him mere words and 
symbols is not ordinarily sufficient. There must be plenty 
of concrete experience to aid in forming ideas and stimulat- 
ing associations. The composition topic which hangs loose 
in the child's mind and sends him at once to the encyclo- 
pedia is not likely to start much thinking. Many geometry 
students need to shear off pasteboard angles and saw some 
wooden circles. 

Having gathered this abundance of material, he must 
form his ideas and concepts as thoroughly and clearly as 



* This shows the value of a thorough review as a preliminary to 
attacking a new topic. See the discussion of "Reviews and Tests," 
Ch. XV. 

Science and Art of Teaching. — 8 



114 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

possible. As we have seen, this demands the presentation 
and comparison of many different examples. The child 
who has seen apples and oranges only does not know 
fruit. 

3. Practice the thinking process with the child. By 
means of questions and examples stimulate and guide him 
in the solution of problems, until the more usual thought 
processes are fairly established. We must work with our 
pupils, until they catch our methods and are able to work 
alone. We must not be afraid of giving too much help in 
the beginning, if only the pupil's mind keeps pace with our 
own. 

We must teach him the importance of getting all the facts 
in the case, and that he must "go slow" about forming a 
conclusion. Teach him that it is better to keep on collect- 
ing facts and let his mind think, than to force it to work on 
an empty stomach. 

4. Frequently have pupils translate thought into action, 
abstract words and other symbols into concrete reality, 
verbal descriptions into shop products. We must all test 
our theories in this practical way. It is dangerous to 
dream too long without finding out whether we can in 
some measure make our dreams come true. Any store 
loafer can furnish a quick solution for the most profound 
problems. But it does us all good to be forced to show 
what lies back of our arguments, what right we have to 
them. 

5. Do not try to force your authority or that of a book on 
your pupils, but cultivate in them a wholesome critical 
attitude. Keep the pupil asking, concerning statements 
he is expected to accept: Just what does this mean? Is it 
true? How do I know? 



THINKING 115 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. Study the following and see whether the precepts 
given under "Training to Think" are here applied: 

"For this lesson the teacher had rigged up in the basement a rude 
windlass with a rope running along the floor. The children were 
allowed to handle the apparatus, and they easily discovered that the 
rope could be wound up. At this point the teacher proposed to one 
boy that he might see if he could wind up the rope with some one 
holding back on it. He chose a boy of his size, and was surprised to 
find it was so easy to do. He then tried two, and so on till he came to 
six. Here he stuck, but he said that if the handle were closer up to the 
axle he could pull up more, as he could run it round faster. The 
teacher fortunately recognized this idea as the true budding of sci- 
entific method, and instead of ignoring it or deciding upon its merits 
dogmatically, called the attention of the rest of the class to the state- 
ment, without indicating whether she agreed with it or not. In the 
language of the logician, the boy had stated a working hypothesis. 
About half the class thought the boy's idea was right. In order to 
test his hypothesis, the boy proposed to bore a hole halfway up the 
bar to which the handle was attached, and thus bring it closer to the 
axle. An auger was obtained and this was done. . . . When the 
little boy . . . had placed his handle nearer the axle, he soon found 
that he could pull up fewer boys than before. His hypothesis, useful 
while it lasted, had been disproved by facts, and he did not need to 
turn to the teacher and ask whether he had been right or wrong." * 

2. What would you do to build up in a child's mind the 
concept " horse"? "Noun?" "Fruit?" Should the ob- 
jects presented be very similar? Why? 

3. Describe the circumstances under which you have 
done some of your best thinking. If you had a hard prob- 
lem to solve would you try to reproduce these conditions? 

4. Can you compel your mind to think out a new problem 
within a set time? Is it right to require much new thought- 
work in a one- or two-hour examination? 



* Colin A. Scott, Social Education, pp. 174-176. Used by permis- 
sion of Ginn and Company, publishers.. 



Ii6 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

5. Thinking is the application of past experience to pres- 
ent problems. Explain and illustrate. 

6. What is the difference between thinking and mere 
guessing? 

7. Why not subject pupils, without question, to the au- 
thority of teacher and textbook? 

8. Work out a practical example of each of the precepts 
given under " Training to Think." 

REFERENCES 

Dewey, John, How We Think. 
Hunt, Una, Una Mary: The Inner Life of a Child. 
O'Shea, M. V., Every-day Problems in Teaching, Chs. IV, V. 
Schaeffer, Nathan C, Thinking and Learning to Think. 
Scott, Colin A., Social Education, Ch. VIII. 
Strayer, George Drayton, Brief Course in the Teaching Process, 
Chs. V, VI. 

Thorndike, Edward L., Principles of Teaching, Ch. X. 
Tracy and Stimpfl, Psychology of Childhood, Ch. II. 



CHAPTER XI 

EDUCATING THE FEEUNGS 

"There is not the slightest doubt that the patient application of the 
experimental method will presently solve the problems of feeling and 
attention." * 

Exercises. — Pronounce the following words and note 
the feelings they arouse: mother, home, stars and stripes, 
love. Now try these: yellow, buzz saw, amplitude, pencil. 
What causes the difference? 

Write a detailed description of your like or dislike for 
some object or person, including if possible an account of 
the genesis of the feeling. 

General nature of feeling.j— The quotation above indi- 
cates that our feelings and emotions have much about 
them that is still mysterious. We do not understand them 
nearly so well as we do the knowing processes, perception, 
memory, imagination, and thought. 

One reason for this is that feeling is so indefinite. The 
mind may be likened to a body, the skeleton of which is 
formed by perception, memory, etc., and the fleshy portion 
by the feelings. The knowing processes, like the bones of 
the body, are definite, stable, and jointed together to form 
one unified whole. The feelings are indefinite, unstable, 

* Edward Bradford Titchener, Lectures on the Elementary Psychol- 
ogy of Feeling and Attention. Used by permission of The Macmillan 
Company, publishers. 

t We must be careful not to confuse feeling with touch or percep- 
tion; one does not feel with his fingers. The word feeling should sug- 
gest pleasure, displeasure, joy, sorrow, anger, love, hate, or the like. 

117 



IiS THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

contradictory in their quick ebbings and flowings, not fitted 
together, apparently, so as to show much unity or system. 

Another important fact is that feeling does not correspond 
with the outside world as thought does. Two stand gazing 
at the sunset. "How sad," feels one, "for but last week 
my dead love watched the sunset with me." "How joyous," 
so run the emotions of the other, "for to-morrow is my 
marriage morn." Now the sunset is there in the physical 
world as surely as anything can be, and would remain there 
if both the watchers perished. It sets up a mental repro- 
duction of itself in the minds of both ; but their feelings are 
not a mental reproduction of the sun or the clouds, nor is 
it the purpose or business of these feelings to represent 
truthfully, to correspond with, anything at all in sun or 
clouds. For this reason there is such a thing as true and 
correct thinking about sun and sunsets, but no such thing 
as true and correct feeling about them. It is no doubt 
correct to think that the sun gives out heat vibrations; but 
it is neither correct nor incorrect, true nor untrue, to feel 
happy or unhappy in the presence of the sun. Each fur- 
nishes his own feelings, so to speak, while the sunset, as an 
external object, remains the same for all. Our feelings then 
are peculiarly our own; they depend largely on the condi- 
tion of our nervous system. 

Why feelings are important in teaching. — Knowing is an 
instrument, a means to fine living, though a very necessary 
one, as a skeleton is necessary to prevent one from being a 
jellyfish. Feeling is not so much an instrument or means to 
anything else; it is an end in itself, our heart of hearts. It 
is that which gives value to everything else. We wisely 
inquire about our friends, not by asking what they know, or 
how they think, but how they feel. 



EDUCATING THE FEELINGS iiq 

We shall find, too, that many, if not most of our acts, 
important and unimportant, are decided on the basis of 
feeling. We take a glass of soda water, marry this or that 
man or woman, select a blue tie instead of a red one, join 
one church or another, because we feel like it. Children, 
especially, base their decisions on feeling. Liking or dis- 
liking the teacher makes much more difference with them 
than liking or disliking the President does with us. And 
their accomplishment in any branch depends upon whether 
they "just love" it or "just hate" it. Interest, which 
puts high voltage into a child's brain currents, is chiefly a 
matter of feeling. 

The teacher should cultivate her own feelings also. 
"Knowledge is power" when you are dealing with nature; 
it makes no difference to your chemical experiment whether 
you look crossly or pleasantly at the test tube, if you know 
what is going on in it. But it may make a great difference 
with your teaching if you look crossly or pleasantly at your 
pupils. In dealing with human nature, feeling as well as 
knowledge is power. The impolite clerk loses the sale. 
The impolite nation loses power and respect. The austere 
moralist lacks influence, while the smiling boss catches the 
ballot. The profound student often lacks the "human 
nature " necessary to success as a teacher, while the mediocre 
intellect behind a cheerful, sociable face scores large. We 
teachers who want to reform the world after an idealistic 
pattern should let good will flow freely, through hand 
clasp, and voice, and eye, and smile, and every other 
channel. 

Culture and control of feeling. — First of all, let us ob- 
serve that our old laws of frequency, recency, intensity, and 
brain-set hold here also. For these are simply the laws by 



120 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

which brain paths are formed, the laws by which the living 
wires of the brain are strung. Given a perception or an 
idea, and the resulting feeling will be the one most fre- 
quently, recently, and intensely associated therewith, and 
the one which fits in the best with our present set of mind. 
One need only mention "home, " "the holidays/' or "gradu- 
ation," to start characteristic feelings in the hearts of all. 
But no one has equally strong feelings for everything. As 
each has special aptitude in some kind of memory and 
thought, so has he in feeling. No one, probably, appre- 
ciates all kinds of music, poetry, and architecture; all love, 
labor, and devotion, — animal, human, and divine. Here 
as everywhere the possessor of even a single talent is to be 
congratulated. We should keep this in mind in dealing 
with children, and not expect a sympathetic emotional 
response to every lesson. We may score a high success by 
failing to rouse interest, for in this way we often discover 
what not to do. 

In addition to the above, the following precepts are most 
valuable. 

i. See that physical conditions are favorable. Brain-set 
depends largely on bodily processes. When the body has 
plenty of energy to meet all demands made on it, the re- 
sulting feeling tone is pleasant; but when the drafts of 
energy are so great that the body cannot well meet them, 
cannot pay its bills so to speak, we have a condition con- 
ducive to irritability, petulance, peevishness, destructive 
tempers of all sorts. 

Let us have patience with the half-fed, the sleepless, the 
diseased, the overworked, those who are poor in nerve 
energy both in school and out, even if they are often irritable 
and rebellious. Probably there never was a case of chronic 



EDUCATING THE FEELINGS 121 

bad temper that did not have a physical basis. Many school 
children are unruly for this very reason. Perhaps we can- 
not always remedy the case, but we can keep our own 
nerves fresh, and ease the situation with patience. 

This means that all who would remain cheerful must 
have a reasonable amount of time for recreation, pure 
pleasure. It is the teacher's first duty to make her pupils 
happy in their work. To insure this, she must beware of 
applying herself so unsparingly as to become chronically 
solemn. 

2. To create a liking for any situation or subject, pro- 
vide for successful activity in it. Successful activity is 
accompanied by agreeable feeling, and vice versa. Thus do 
we entertain our friends, by getting them to do something, 
and do it with success, even if it is only talking. And so do 
we like to be entertained. 

School is not mere entertainment, but the principle holds 
true. The pupil must feel that he is succeeding, or he will 
withdraw from the campaign if he can. Recall the pure 
joy you felt the first time you actually read off a whole 
paragraph of some foreign language without referring to the 
" vocabulary " ! It is worth while to go slowly sometimes, to 
provide easy exercises, and try, by every means that does 
not sacrifice the general good, to give each pupil a flush of 
this feeling of success. Similarly superintendents and 
principals should help timid teachers to feel that they are 
succeeding. 

3. Control feeling, not directly, but indirectly, by con- 
trolling the sensations and associations that give rise to it. 
This rule, wherever it can be carried out, will enable us 
both to evoke desirable feelings and to repress feelings that 
are undesirable. 



122 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Thorndike gives three ways by which desirable feelings 
may be called forth: (a) by ideas connected with the emo- 
tion in the past, as when joy follows the announcement of a 
favorite excursion; (b) by imitation— our emotions follow 
those of our group or set; and (c) by the bodily response 
characteristic of the emotion. Act kindly or bravely and 
you feel kind or brave. "This last is indeed the surest way 
to secure the presence of an emotion. In the long run our 
feelings grow into harmony with our conduct." * Treat the 
unwelcome caller cordially and he will soon be welcome. 
Pet the repulsive child in your school and he will cease to be 
repulsive. Many a brave man has found that courage is 
largely a matter of habit ; if we act as if we are not afraid, we 
shall soon have no fear. 

Similarly, undesirable feelings may be dispelled by sub- 
stituting new sensation processes for old, and so generating a 
new feeling in place of the old one. Show the baby a new 
toy and he often forgets to cry for the one he had. So pun- 
ishment often introduces some quick, sharp sensations, and 
creates a new center of interest. Set the mind at work on a 
different subject if you want a different feeling. 

4. Quench an emotion in its beginning, or else if possible 
let it exhaust itself by running its course. Wherever no 
moral wrong will result, it is always better that an emotion 
once aroused should "come out" in some form or other. If 
it cannot be expressed, it should be coolly thought over, 
introspected, analyzed, dissected, and thrust into outer 
darkness, never to return. One who cannot by some such 
process rid himself of hideous thoughts and black emotions 
is in dire need of a confessor. 

The angered child may either (1) be distracted by other 

* Edward L. Thorndike, Principles of Teaching, pp. 199, 200, 



EDUCATING THE FEELINGS 123 

stimuli at the beginning of his passion, or (2) if it has 
reached a high pitch, he may be disregarded and allowed to 
wear out his ill feeling by sulking or otherwise, so long as he 
does no damage. But it is probably unwise to use summary 
measures when the passion is at its height. Later, when he 
is in docile and sympathetic mood, encourage him in a 
kind way to reflect on his ill behavior, and lead him to set 
his mind firmly to resist future attacks. We older children 
also may well engage in such reflection during calm mo- 
ments, and establish a mental set, enforced by a resolu- 
tion, such as "Keep cool," that will flash into mind at the 
critical moment and prevent an outbreak. Often our 
passions get the better of us because we "forget." * 



* Self-consciousness is a form of disagreeable feeling so common as 
to deserve special treatment. It frequently troubles the teacher, and 
students often ask for a remedy for it. The following will help to 
dispel it. 

1. Have a regular daily time for reflection: criticize your errors 
unsparingly, praise your good deeds unstintingly, — it is only when 
compared with divine perfection that you are a poor worm, — lay your 
plan for the future; then live, for the rest of the day, with all the 
abandon of a good actor, and refuse to think of self; you have more 
important business on hand. 

2. Feel kindly toward every one; don't regard your neighbors as 
critics, but as friends. Feel the same toward a class or an audience. If 
they are friends, you should enjoy having them look at and listen to 
you. We should all do our best for each other, all struggle upward 
together. 

3. Lose yourself in some large cause, preaching, kindergartening, 
healing, whatever seems to you to be most worth doing. Compared 
with the advancement of this great purpose, what may happen to 
your little self is not worth thinking of. 

4. In any embarrassing situation, keep your mind on results. Look 
ahead to what you aim to get done. Never mind the details of method 
just then, nor what others are saying or thinking — go on! Get there! 
Achieve your purpose in spite of all. 

We cannot overcome self -consciousness by a single effort, however. 
Practice makes perfect here, as elsewhere. 



124 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Interest and attention. — Interest and attention are, as 
Titchener says, two sides of the same state of mind. Interest 
is the feeling side, attention the knowing side. 

The old opinion concerning the interests of children 
seemed to be that the curriculum was fixed, and that the 
children were to be fitted to it. The teacher was expected 
to " arouse interest" in it in some way, page after page, 
point after point. The newer teaching is that the child is 
the standard. The course of study must be fitted to his 
needs. Interest in anything means that certain brain cells 
are ripening; and just then is the psychological moment to 
teach that thing. Theoretically, this new view is no doubt 
closer to the truth than the old ; practically, with a swarm of 
children to teach and a swarm of subjects to teach them, we 
do the best we can. 

Nature of attention. — Attention is not another mental 
process in addition to those we have studied; it is simply the 
condition of the mind. We do not have clouds, wind, sun- 
shine, etc., and weather. Weather is just the condition, the 
relation of all these elements. On my desk I do not have 
books, papers, pencils, and disorder. The disorder is merely 
the way these things are. So attention is merely the way 
the mind is at any moment. 

Controlling attention. — There is no magic way of taking 
captive the mind of anyone we choose and compelling it to 
attend to what we will. Something can be done, however, 
to keep the stream of our pupil's consciousness flowing in 
the desired direction. This something consists in applying 
the familiar laws of recency, frequency, intensity, and 
brain-set. 

A kindergarten pupil, being shown a large picture, 
pointed at once to a small and inconspicuous flag on the 



EDUCATING THE FEELINGS 125 

top of a great building. He had just been studying flags 
in school. If you have recently taught fractions, you can 
attract attention to decimals by presenting them as a new 
sort of fraction. Just after a fire story has appeared in the 
papers pupils will attend intently to the fire drill. A pupil 
in your room is taken ill; teach now the hygiene of the 
disease. 

Frequency, if it is pleasant frequency, is almost invincible. 
" Safety first," the motto on the blackboard, the memory 
gem, anything which is, 

, " Like childhood's simple rimes, 
Said o'er a thousand times," 

wins by its very persistence. 

The law of intensity shows its power in bright colors, the 
sharply pronounced name, the keen pleasure of successful 
activity. It draws attention to the biggest, the oldest, the 
greatest, the most beautiful — to the superlative degree of 
all times and places, and to the "only" * of whatever kind. 

Brain-set is the most sweeping law. To begin with, every 
normal person is born curious. Announce a mystery and 
you have every eye (and some mouths) wide open. Things 
novel in your classroom, a new object or bit of apparatus, or 
some new procedure, will make everyone take notice, f A 
reasonable amount of such novelty is easily and constantly 
supplied by the changing seasons and the natural progress 
of our course of lessons. 

But it is personal mental set that cuts the channel of our 

* A friend states that with no special effort, he has remembered for 
years the fact that the only silent m in the English language is in 
mnemonic and related words. 

f Some teachers take advantage of this by establishing a "beauty 
corner," where objects of aesthetic interest are placed from time to 
time. 



126 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

attention deepest. Talk money to the miser and he can 
hardly choose but listen; the hungry man looks in at the 
butcher's and the grocer's as he passes; the stamp-collecting 
boy scrutinizes every letter; your little learners are all alert 
if you propose a game. Most girls attend easily to sewing, 
most boys to whittling. 

Fortunately we are becoming rich enough and wise 
enough to furnish the materials and let the children work 
out their natural interests — grow into an education. But it 
is still necessary, many times, to arouse interest in school 
work, and secure attention to it, by setting the pupil's heart 
on something that lies beyond, — the pleasure of his parents, 
his standing in the community, "getting a job," making a 
living. We should center the feelings of each on the highest 
object he can appreciate at the time, and then try to see that 
his ideal grows as he grows. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

i. Make a list of people who are very thoughtful, and 
one of people who are very emotional. Which seem to 
succeed better? What does success mean? 

2. Criticize the romantic ideal of life, that is, the ideal 
that makes feeling the guide. Is it characteristic of feeling 
to plan far ahead? 

3. Would it be wise for one to kill off his feelings if he 
could? If not, what is their true place? 

4. Which is better when things go wrong, to become 
angry or discouraged, or to think? 

5. Can you think profoundly and feel deeply at the same 
time? 

6. Are you a thinker or a feeler, for the most part? Do 
you change as you grow older? 

7. A lady who had long taken medicine from a certain 



EDUCATING THE FEELINGS 127 

type of spoon, found herself unable to enjoy ice cream from 
a spoon of similar pattern. Why was this? 

8. Give some devices for arousing interest and securing 
attention. Base them on the laws of attention. 

9. What does proper expression in reading have to do 
with the feelings? How can we secure it? 

10. How would you deal with a pupil who refused to obey 
you, evidently because he was very angry or otherwise 
excited? Can you think of any situation where it is a 
teacher's privilege or duty to be angry? 

n. Do you believe in forced apologies from your pupils? 
Why? 

12. It is right to assume an excellence which we do not 
possess, as a means to the attainment of it. Debate this. 
Remember that, "In the long run, our feelings grow into 
harmony with our conduct." 

13. Have you ever succeeded in a branch of study that 
was permanently uninteresting? 

14. State what you believe to be the relation between 
one's natural inheritance, and his ability to be interested 
in (and attend to) various branches of study and lines of 
endeavor. 

15. How do you feel when you have recovered from some 
passion? Can you make a list of feelings which you think 
should be killed out of one's personality? 

REFERENCES 

Home, Herman Harrell, Psychological Principles of Education, 
Part III. 
" James, William, Talks to Teachers. 

Klapper, Paul, Principles of Educational Practice, pp. 408-420. 

Thorndike, Edward L., Principles of Teaching, Ch. XII. 

Yerkes, Robert M., Introduction to Psychology, Chs. XIII, XV. 



CHAPTER XII 

LEVELS OF LEARNING 

"It is a general principle in psychology that consciousness deserts 
all processes where it can no longer be of use. The tendency of con- 
sciousness to a minimum of complication is in fact a dominating 
law." * 

Exercise. — Make a list of from twenty-five to fifty 
" Samples of Behavior." Include such machine-like be- 
havior as heartbeat and breathing, habits like brushing 
your hair and sugaring your oatmeal, and more important 
acts which have cost you some real thinking. Try to ar- 
range them in classes, according to the amount of con- 
sciousness necessary for the performance of each. 

The business of using the body. — We have now con- 
sidered all that is most important in our mental make-up. 
We have yet to study the influence the mind has on what we 
do. We may call this the business of using the body. 

In every well-managed business there are grades of power 
and service. In the shop, for example, we find (i) the work- 
man at his bench, going through the same process again 
and again with little variation; (2) the foreman, whose 
tasks are more various, and who controls many workmen; 
and (3) the chief of the whole concern. 

Consciousness is a good business manager. In the ner- 
vous system, we find three levels (see figure, page 129): (1) 

* William James, Principles of Psychology. Used by permission of 
Henry Holt and Company, publishers. 

128 



LEVELS OF LEARNING 



129 



the spinal centers, which go through the same process again 
and again, with little variation; (2) the lower brain centers, 
whose tasks are more various, each controlling many spinal 
centers; and (3) the higher centers, where dwells the chief 
of the whole concern. This chief is yourself. 

Levels of behavior, and of consciousness. — In such be- 
havior as ordinary breathing and walking, the body acts 
much like a machine. Such behavior is called automatic. 
Movements that are automatic are taken care of by the 
lower workmen, the spinal centers, and require no con- 
sciousness to direct them. We shall call this low-level 
behavior. 



Levels of 


Levels of the 


Levels of 


Behavior 


Nervous System 


Consciousness 


High-level behav- 




Action guided by 


ior: volitional. 


/ Higher \ 
/ brain centers \ 


thought (and feeling). 



Mid-level behav- 
ior: habitual and 
instinctive. 



Lower 
brain centers 



Action touched off by 
a perception or an idea, 
not guided by thought, 
but usually accompanied 
by feeling, often intense. 



Low-level behavior: 
automatic. 



Consciousness un- 
necessary. 



Mid-level behavior is a step higher. It is well illustrated 
by our habits, such as going to classes, eating lunch at 
noon, going to bed at a certain hour. Here the action is 
touched off by a perception (such as seeing the clock) or 

Science and Art of Teaching. — 9 



130 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

an idea (as the idea of food). It is not guided by thought; 
mid-level behavior is usually accompanied by feeling, often 
intense feeling. 

High-level behavior consists of those acts which require 
thought, such as choosing which book you will buy, or de- 
ciding how you will spend your vacation. Such acts, be- 
cause they require will, that is, making up one's mind, are 
often called volitional.* 

Low-level behavior. — Some of our automatic, machine- 
like movements are inherited. Such are the beating of the 
heart, ordinary breathing and winking, and the change 
of size of the pupil of the eye under the influence of 
light.| 

As teachers, we are much more concerned with those 
automatic movements which are not inherited but acquired. 
Our oldest, simplest, most thoroughly formed habits tend 
to sink into such a mindless rehearsal of old deeds. Leave 
your watch at the jeweler's and count how often you pull 
its ghost from your pocket. Your petty chagrin makes you 
conscious of the occurrence. Here belong all the perfected 
performances of muscular skill ; the fingers on the keyboard 
of piano or typewriter become almost as much a part of the 
mechanism as are the levers and wires within. Our minds 
laboriously look after the acquisition of all such acts, and 
then, as James says, " consciousness deserts all processes 
where it can no longer be of use." 



* The nervous system is not divided into compartments by par- 
titions; and there is no sharp dividing line between these kinds of 
behavior — they shade into each other. But the division into levels is 
valuable for practical teaching purposes. 

Note that these three levels of behavior require, respectively, no 
consciousness, feeling consciousness, and thought consciousness. 

f Inherited automatic behavior is called reflex. 



LEVELS OF LEARNING 131 

Mid-level behavior. — The two forms of mid-level be- 
havior are instinct and habit. Instinct is inherited mid- 
level behavior. An instinct is an old racial trait, born in us 
because it is absolutely necessary to all creatures whose 
kind is to continue. For example, those animals, human or 
lower, that lack the traits which lead to mating and the 
rearing of young must perish from the earth. They cannot 
pass on their natures to posterity; there is no posterity for 
them. Similarly those who have too little self-assertion 
and energy to win the means of subsistence for themselves 
and their young are also doomed. Nature offers the prize 
of life to those only who are willing to strive for it. 

This has been true for ages. Evidently those who people 
the earth to-day must be descended from good fighters and 
ardent lovers. All others have been persistently compelled 
to die out. It is no wonder that our race continues to make 
war, and that love is the greatest theme in literature. These 
fundamental traits, and others like them, are very old, very 
strongly "bred in the bone," and are present in some meas- 
ure in almost everyone. 

This means that we are born with certain well-marked 
brain paths ready formed, or at least born with a strong 
tendency to form them. Our nervous systems are machines 
made to perform in a given way. It seems " natural" that 
the heart should pump blood : it is made to do that. So it 
is " natural" that the average child should eat, play, imitate, 
and be self-assertive : his nervous system is made to do that. 
Because the nerve currents shoot so easily along the ready 
formed fibers, an old, instinctive act requires little learning; 
it "does itself," blindly, persistently, but often irresistibly. 
A bird that has never seen a nest will build one at the right 
moment. Nor has she any idea how her romance is coming 



132 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

out * She builds and bills and coos and sits until — lo! a 
nest and birdlings. 

As teachers, we must learn to use the power of these 
nervous explosions to drive the car of education. When- 
ever a child learns a lesson under the stimulus of competition 
he gets a thrill of the old instinct of self-assertion, rivalry, 
fighting, — in a modified, modern form. 

Habit is the acquired form of mid-level behavior. Habit 
and instinct are precisely alike, except that instinct is in- 
herited and habit is acquired.! A habit, then, has to be 
learned ; the nerve paths that control it must be formed by 
individual practice. But once fixed, we do not have to 
work it. It works us. 

Mid-level behavior is blind, unreasoning. On this level 
we do not think how we should act; we feel what we desire 
to do. Yet the great bulk of human behavior is of just this 
kind. The sitting hen, the playing child, the glutton, the 
romantic lover, — all have the same reason for doing what 
they do; they " feel like it." (See Chapter XI, "Educating 
the Feelings.") 

High-level behavior. — High-level or volitional behavior 
differs from all below it in being thoughtful. Because it is 
thoughtful it does not, like the lower types of behavior, 
merely repeat an old performance in an old way, perhaps a 
foolish way at that. The lower animals, following their 
instincts, do this year what they did last, and so on to the 
end of the repeating years. Not so man; the more of a man 

* Swallows have been known to migrate and leave their young to 
starve in the nest. It seems impossible that they can have any clear 
idea as to what will be the outcome of their behavior. 

f Instinct is sometimes spoken of as an "inherited habit." We 
might also speak of habit as an " acquired instinct." But both of 
these phrases are of doubtful value. 



LEVELS OF LEARNING 133 

he is, the more he changes his behavior to suit the circum- 
stances. 

Nor is high-level behavior untinged by feeling. The man 
of thought does not dismiss his feelings as valueless; he tries 
to make his head and his heart agree. 

Levels of learning. — As there are three levels of behavior, 
so there are three corresponding levels of learning. Our 
pupils are always using some one of them, and it is often 
an important question to know which to employ. To 
teach a child is to make new paths in his nervous system. 
The question is, by what method shall they be made? 

Low-level learning. — Low-level learning is accomplished 
by repetition as nearly mechanical and mindless as may be. 
It is illustrated by the boy who runs over and over the words 
of his spelling lesson, machine fashion, while his mind is 
chiefly intent on counting the marbles in his pocket. Low- 
level learning also includes the process of " trial and error," 
described below. 

The illustration shows a form of maze used to test the 
learning power of animals. The lesson to be learned is the 
path from the entrance to the food box in the center. 




Human beings, when tried in such a maze, "did, on the 
whole, rather less well than the rats, although some of them, 



134 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

after their first success, cut down the time for the next 
success rather more rapidly than the rats. The problem 
is not one which permits itself to be intellectualized very 
readily, and in consequence the 'try, try again 7 method, 
known in comparative psychology as the l trial and error 
method,' is the only one available. The evidence thus far 
in hand indicates that this is the all but universal method 
employed by animals in problem solving." * 

Evidently low-level learning is wasteful of time and 
energy, and liable to fix bad habits on us. We should never 
adopt it if we can avoid it. But sometimes it is the only 
way; for some problems are like puzzles — we cannot think 
them out because no facts are furnished to serve as a basis 
for thinking. Even a detective must have some clue to his 
mystery. In such puzzle problems we must try more or less 
systematically until we succeed, and then note how the 
success came, so we can repeat it. 

Unhappily many pupils, in their efforts to avoid think- 
ing, fall into low-level learning. They not only repeat their 
tasks mechanically, but they guess carelessly at the words 
in the reading lesson, and figure their arithmetic problems 
this way and that in the hope that the answer will come out 
somehow. We should be able to convince them that it 
does not pay in the long run to learn by the "rat " method. 

Mid-level learning. — Here we select some instinct or some 
old habit, and turn all its force toward the accomplishment 
of the new lesson. For example, if a dog has a hunting and 
chasing instinct, we may take advantage of it and train him 
into habits that make him a good caretaker of flocks and 
herds. His native tendency to paw out food and eat it can 

* James Rowland Angell, Chapters from Modem Psychology, p. 260. 
Used by permission of Longmans, Green and Company, publishers. 



LEVELS OF LEARNING 135 

be so modified by having him dig food from one's hand, that 
he will gradually learn to " shake hands " even when no food 
is offered. And once the habit of shaking hands is estab- 
lished, we can build on that the further habit of refusing to 
shake if one offers the left hand or has his fingers crossed. 
The animal trainer accomplishes practically all of his mar- 
velous results by mid-level methods. * 

With children, the instinct to imitate is so often used that 
mid-level learning is sometimes called learning by imitation. 
But many other instincts are employed, such as play, 
inquisitiveness, the collecting instinct, the desire to roam, 
the tendency to build and make, Old habits are also used 
as a basis for new ones. If a pupil in penmanship has 
learned to make good straight lines, angles, and ovals, we 
can easily teach him to make good letters. 

High-level learning. — High-level learning is thoughtful 
learning. Ideas lead. Our chief dependence is on explana- 
tion, rather than showing. By the mid-level method the 
pupil learns from the hand up, manual before mental; by 
the high-level process he learns from the head down, mental 
before manual. This high-level, coldly intellectual process 
is one that teachers are in danger of using all too much. 

Illustration and summary.— Suppose a child is to be 
taught to hold his pen, or inflect his voice, or use good Eng- 
lish, or sing, or throw a ball, or swim, or use a saw, or per- 
form any other act of skill: (1) he may be left to work out 
the puzzle alone by trying ten thousand times until he 
happens on some way that works fairly well, and drills it 
home; or (2) he may be given suggestions, shown how, told 



* Angell's statement, quoted above, that animals learn almost 
wholly by trial and error, applies to animals when left to themselves, 
not when they have a trainer. 



136 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

to "do it this way," "follow me," encouraged to build on 
the basis of some instinct or old habit; or (3) he may have 
the matter explained to him and then proceed to work it 
out in his own way. 

We have seen that low-level learning is unintelligent, 
extremely wasteful of time and energy, and likely to fix 
bad habits. We should use it only as a last resort. The 
high-level process, while valuable as an aid, can seldom be 
used alone. There are few boys who, from the explanation 
of why a ball curves, as given in physics, can work out the 
best method of throwing curved balls. Mid-level learning 
is the most general process. We can readily see how essential 
it is that the teacher be able to perform in a masterful way 
whatever act of skill she attempts to teach. To develop 
similar ability in her pupils, she should rely chiefly on imi- 
tation, suggestion, and sympathy. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. Reclassify (if necessary) the samples of behavior called 
for in the exercise at the opening of this chapter. 

2. Can a balky mule be truly said to have a strong will? 
In what terms would you describe him? 

3. Why do we expect profound wisdom and effective 
action from those who talk little and are rather slow to act? 
"Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise." 
Explain. 

4. Is one likely to find the right vocation by a process of 
trial and error? What is the right procedure? 

5. How could a boy be educated into a good tramp, 
sport, or miser, if such were desirable? 

6. Should most fifth-grade children acquire a mastery of 
fractions by a high-level or a mid-level process? 



LEVELS OF LEARNING 137 

7. "We learn to do by doing." Show the truth and the 
error of this statement. 

8. Make a list of ten of your habits — bad ones, if you 
have so many. What stimulus usually starts them? What 
supports you in your good ones? 

9. Observe how those about you eat, talk, dress, etc. 
Do you think that most of their behavior is guided by 
reason, or by instinct and habit? Observe and report on 
some child in this respect. 

10. What has heredity to do with determining the ease 
or difficulty with which a habit can be formed? 

11. Can manual training be taught by lectures? Why? 

12. Show how low-level memorizing differs from high- 
level memorizing. 

REFERENCES 

O'Shea, M. V., Every-day Problems in Teaching, Chs. VI, VII. 
Pyle, William Henry, Outlines of Educational Psychology, Chs. 
IV-LX. 

Rusk, Robert R., Introduction to Experimental Education. 
Thorndike, Edward L., Education, Chs. IV, V, VI. 
Yerkes, Robert M., Introduction to Psychology, Ch. XXIX. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE LEARNING PROCESS 

"How well he does the work, how rapidly he improves, depends, 
(i) upon how strenuously he keeps himself applied to the task, (2) 
upon the learner, the mental and physical condition of his organism. 
He must keep himself in perfect condition and strenuously applied to 
the work; the organism does all the rest." * 

Exercise. — Write an account of how you felt and what 
you thought when you were learning something which has 
become " second nature" to you, such as skating, swim- 
ming, dancing, playing a musical instrument, curving a ball. 
This should begin with the first efforts and end with the 
finished feat. 

Motives for learning. — If we wanted nothing we should do 
nothing. We all work most happily and effectively when 
we are getting what we want. Now what do our little 
workers want? What can we suggest to them as an incen- 
tive to learning? 

We have already approached this problem, for it is 
closely wrapped up with the discussion of interest (see 
page 124) and of instinct (see page 131). We can hope to 
win anyone to action by appealing to his nature, his inborn 
traits j just as we can cause powder to go off by applying the 
spark its constitution demands. One works to beat a rival, 
another for gain, another for love. 

It is impossible to take up here all the special and peculiar 

* William Frederick Book, Psychology of Skill. Used by permission 
of the author. 

138 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 139 

traits that distinguish individual children, and which may 
even furnish their strongest motive to work and to learn. 
Such are the love of literature, or mechanics, or art. Brown- 
ing loved Byron and began writing poetry almost inces- 
santly at the age of six. 

The teacher must deal with large groups of pupils, and so 
must often appeal to those traits which are likely to be 
strong in all children. These are the old racial traits called 
instincts. The racial traits have never been thoroughly and 
satisfactorily studied, but we can suggest a few which are 
usually so strong as to furnish a kind of key to the nature 
and activity of the average child. 

Self-assertion. — To some extent, nature insists that each 
shall take care of himself. In the uncultured this trait may 
rule from birth to death. It is especially strong in the 
child. His native tendency is to snatch his food, slap his 
rival, claim all as "mine," resent interference, and be mon- 
arch of all he surveys. Herein lies the power of praise, 
rivalry, competition. The pupil who works alone is less 
likely to strive for success. This fundamental force in 
personality is perhaps the strongest to which we can appeal, 
and proportionately dangerous if abused.* But self- 
assertion may be good as well as bad. 

Hero worship. — Feeling our pettiness and our lack of 
power, we turn to some one who is stronger. Children, who 
are all weak as compared with adults, cannot well do other- 



* The picture of the student who ruins his health to win a prize is 
one often painted for us, and is not altogether untruthful. 

Competition between groups may be equally strong and unreason- 
ing. The principal of a high school in which there was competition 
between classes in the matter of attendance, found a group of boys 
about to haze a classmate whose proposed absence for a half day 
threatened to mar the perfect record of the class for that week. 



140 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

wise. Your hero is what you hope to be. Through him you 
assert yourself,* achieving what you cannot achieve ,alone. 
The sanction of your hero means that you are on the way to 
success. You will probably find, in your own early educa- 
tion, that one of your strongest motives to the learning of 
anything was the fact that your parent or teacher, or some 
one else to whom you were strongly attached, approved that 
learning. 

Try by every worthy means to make yourself the leader, 
the hero — but not merely the sentimental favorite— of your 
group of pupils. The personal influence of a thoroughly 
good teacher is not likely to become so strong as to make 
anyone complain about it. 

Group spirit. — As the child wants his hero to succeed, so 
he wants his group, his kind, his " crowd," his " bunch," to 
win; for that means his own triumph. But in order to 
triumph with his group he must keep its favor, fall in with 
its spirit and habits. If he becomes very different from his 
fellows, both he and they will find it disagreeable. He 
gravitates to the group level, does as his group does. If bad 
conduct and failure in lessons are the exception, no pupil 
likes to furnish the conspicuous exception; f but in a school 
where low standards prevail, the good pupil is not likely to 
follow the lonely way of goodness overlong. It requires 
everlasting persistence on the teacher's part to keep the 
group level high. 



* Hero worship may almost be called indirect self-assertion. 

f Perhaps this is not true of a few bold spirits who like to pose as 
leaders, start a rebellion, and set new standards of conduct for the 
group. The best way to deal with them is not merely to suppress 
them by punishment, but to show ourselves better leaders than they 
and draw their forces away from them. A would-be leader left with- 
out followers is a sorry sight. 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 141 

Imitation. — Sing into a harp or a piano and it will sym- 
pathetically reproduce your tone. Our nervous systems are 
capable of a somewhat similar sympathetic response. Per- 
form any act in the presence of a pupil, and if he "has it in 
him" to do that deed, he is likely (other things being 
favorable) to attempt it. The world is waiting to reward 
those teachers who do not merely stand back and tell pupils 
what to do, but who are able to say, at every point, " Follow 
me. Do as I do." 

Play. — This hardly needs discussion. That the play 
trait is strong is shown by the vast amount of time most 
children gladly spend in play. Whatever can be put in the 
guise of a game arouses ready enthusiasm.* 

Curiosity. — As said before (page 125), we are all curious 
by nature. "How will it turn out?" and "What does it 
mean?" are the questions that carry us through thousands 
of pages of fiction and of history, and give zest and interest 
to the commonplace affairs of everyday existence. They 
can be made to give life to many a lesson. 

Constructiveness.—~Perhaps most of us think the child has 
more destructiveness; but he tears down largely for the 
purpose of satisfying his curiosity and enabling him to 
build again. His building may be homely and crude, but 
it is his. When we reflect on how much we have learned 
from our efforts to build and to make, we can see why we 
should give this impulse full play in the schoolroom. 

Other motives. — The above are some of the oldest, strong- 
est, and most common traits to which we can appeal to 
arouse interest in a lesson and "get up steam" for its learn- 
ing. But the open-eyed teacher will discover many others, 

* For suggestions along this line, see Natural Education, listed in 
the References at the close of the chapter. 



142 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

such as the rambling impulse, so valuable in the study 
of geography and botany; and the collecting craze, which 
may lead to the accumulation of all sorts of specimens for 
the school museum. Moreover, special traits, such as the 
love for nature study or music, are sometimes stronger in 
individual children than the old racial traits, the instincts. 
Value of expressive learning. — The title of this chapter, 
"The Learning Process," includes much that has already 
been covered, such as perceiving, remembering, imagining, 
and thinking. But such learning was previously treated as 
passive, receptive. In discussing "levels of learning" and 
"the learning process," the aim is to lay emphasis on the 
value of the active, expressive side of the work. Learning is 
sometimes defined as "change of behavior, due to expe- 
rience." If this is right, then no matter how much one has 
committed to memory, we can hardly say he has really 
learned anything unless it makes a difference in the way he 
behaves. 

"Who learns and learns, but acts not what he knows, 
Is one who plows and plows, but never sows." 

Expression clears up our ideas, makes them exact, gets 
them jointed together. If you want to find out whether 
you really know anything, try to express it. "Reading 
maketh a full man, conversation a ready man, writing an 
exact man." Most of us are too intent on getting "full- 
ness," too little on being exact. Draw accurately or make 
some object, such as a kite, and see how much you must 
improve your knowledge of it before you can finish the task. 
Expression shows us our weak points, and stings us into the 
resolution that hereafter there shall be no weak points. 

Further, it is only by expressing ideas, with tongue, pen, 
brush, chisel or what not, that mind can make itself known 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 143 

to mind. No one can enter his neighbor's head and catch a 
thought; he must wait till it comes out. Whoever cannot 
learn to express himself in some form must be content to 
remain walled in from the world to the end of his days. 

When any form of expression, such as playing an instru- 
ment, writing, or saying the multiplication table is per- 
fected into an act of skill, it yields especially valuable 
results. " Practice makes perfect," but just how? We 
gain (1) in accuracy; (2) in speed; (3) in ease of performance 
and freedom from fatigue; (4) in confidence and pleasure in 
our ability; and (5) in the freeing of our mind for other mat- 
ters. The practiced act almost performs itself. 

Schoolroom practice demands the teaching of many acts 
of skill. We should understand the process in detail. 

The acquisition of skill. — This means, of course, the form- 
ing of habits, but regarded from the mechanical, rather than 
the moral standpoint. Habit forming as an element in char- 
acter building will be considered later (see Chapter XXVI). 

It is found that those learn fastest and most easily who 
for some reason want to learn. Accordingly we should study 
our learner and appeal to that good motive which is most 
likely to stir him to action. Some of the more common 
motives we have studied in this chapter. Perhaps it is best 
if we can make the pupil feel that he is going to need this 
learning, — skillful penmanship, good reading, or what not, 
— and need it soon.* 



*Many, probably most pupils need no special appeal; they will 
follow the teacher without question wherever she leads, so long as 
her own interest holds out. But we should know how to "pull the 
strings" of a pupil's desires, in cases where it becomes necessary. On 
the other hand the little rebel's most natural question, "What good is 
it? " may open the teacher's eyes to the fact that she is teaching many 
things which really are of no value. 



144 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

We should then follow the steps outlined below. 

i. Study the learner, and choose the method, low-, mid-, 
or high-level, that is best adapted to him. The animal must 
learn by trial and error, or by the adaptation of some in- 
stinct; young children and stupid grown folks learn most 
readily by play and imitation; very bright children and 
intelligent adult learners should be approached through the 
medium of ideas, should have things explained, be made to 
understand as a preliminary to the acquisition of skill. 
Here enters real teaching as compared with the training 
which alone is possible on the two lower levels. 

2. Make the process clear in the beginning, and see that 
it is practiced correctly. It is easier to form new good 
habits than to break up old bad habits. If the act of skill is a 
complex one, such as writing, the teacher should: 

(i) Analyze it into simple parts. 

(2) Teach each simple part thoroughly. 

(3) Combine these simple acts into one whole finished 
performance. 

Thus in penmanship, we must teach : (a) bodily position, 
(b) arm movement from left to right, (c) arm movement at 
right angles to the base line, (d) paper holding, (e) pen hold- 
ing, etc., combining these simple acts, when each is reason- 
ably well learned, into the finished performance of writing. 

If any "hitches" are discovered, concentrate on them until 
they are mastered. This saves much monotonous repetition 
of the whole performance. 

3. Keep the mind of the learner on the goal to be 
achieved. This goal should be an accurate and finished 
product. It is found that those learners are most successful 
who work with attention at high pitch, and who assume 
during practice the u do-or-die" attitude. Such fixation of 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 145 

attention keeps one from becoming " rattled." Moreover 
it helps the learner to avoid two ever-besetting dangers: 
(1) going too slowly and so becoming "set" on a low plane 
of achievement; and (2) going too fast and so falling into 
and practicing errors. To avoid this latter danger it has 
been proved best to practice most of the time for accuracy, 
and occasionally only for speed. The speed will take care 
of itself, for the most part. 

It is noteworthy, too, that this centering of attention on 
the goal promotes the unconscious, apparently accidental 
discovery of improved methods, which can later be con- 
sciously adopted. * 

4. Keep up the learner's self-confidence and general good 
spirits by pointing to his successes and otherwise, especially 
during times of slow progress. Too intense stimuli impede 
the learning of animals; and it is probable that caustic criti- 
cism, sarcasm, or any other excessively intense stimulus 
impedes the progress of the average human learner also. 

At the beginning of practice, learning is more rapid than 
at any later period. But when this first flush of conquest 
is over, it is quite usual for curves of learning (figure, p. 146) 
to show " plateaus," long periods of even forty to fifty days, 
during which there is no progress and in which there may 
even be retrogression, in spite of continued practice. Be- 
sides this there are more numerous brief periods of a similar 
nature, each lasting but a few days; and one must even 
re-learn each day, to some extent, what was " learned" the 
preceding day. Moreover, the more closely one approaches 

* Everyone, if he keeps watch, will find himself happening upon new 

and better ways of lacing or buttoning shoes, brushing teeth, conibing 

hair, and the like. He should then take advantage of these new 

tricks and deliberately practice them. So it is with all acts of skill. 

Science and Art of Teaching. — 10 



146 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

the limit of achievement, the longer and harder must he 
work for each added unit of efficiency. 

The learner should know that we all have to pull against 



1900 

1700 

1300 

1300 

1100 

900 

700 

500 

































. ^ 














4^ 






A^ 


V^ 


■w 


W 


r 




_J.cn 


r ^ rs/S '\W' 














A 
















J 
















r 

















10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 



170 



Curve showing rate of improvement in typewriting. Figures on the horizontal axis in- 
dicate number of days of practice; those on the vertical axis show number of strokes per 
ten-minute period. Notice the long " plateaus." (From Psychology of Skill, by W. F. Book.) 

such discouragements, and if he cannot avoid them, — some 
can do so in part, largely by keeping their nerves in fine 
condition, — he should be encouraged to endure for a time, 
for salvation always appears in the form of another rapid 
rise in the curve at the end of the plateau. 

"The feelings were a perfect index of the learner's psycho- 
physical efficiency and of how his attention was working," 
says one experimenter, a and always had a stimulating or 
retarding effect on every part of the work." Also, "Close 
attention to the work, success, improvement, and a pleasur- 
able feeling tone always went together." * Of course, as 
the author remarks, the feeling may have come from the 
success, or the success from the feeling, or both from some- 
thing else; but it is very likely that good feeling promotes 
efficient learning. 

* William Frederick Book, Psychology of Skill, pp. 177, 73. Used 
by permission of the author. 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 147 

5. Take every advantage of the good days, and make 
allowance for the bad ones. Intense effort at favorable 
times will scoop out new and more effective nerve channels 
through which the currents will thereafter flow with ease. 
Whoever by a master effort can excel himself is likely to 
find such excellence a permanent acquisition. The rate of 
learning must be suited to subjective and objective condi- 
tions. On bad days the rate of performance may sink to 
one half the best record, or even lower, and it is unwise to 
force matters: "On a bad day when spontaneous attention 
is relaxed it is profitable to drop down to a lower plane of 
work, one sufficiently low for the work to be done correctly. 
Only on the good days is it profitable for the learner to 
' sprint' or try hard to push himself onto a higher plane of 
work." * 

As soon as the pupil can profit by the knowledge, teach 
him the art of self-examination and self -direction. In 
addition to the general art of self-teaching, there are many 
personal "tricks" which will add much to the pleasure and 
profit of learning. 

The importance of rest, recreation, good hygiene gener- 
ally is easily apparent. To sum up in the words of Book: f 
"How well he does the work, how rapidly he improves, 
depends, (1) upon how strenuously he keeps himself applied 
to the task; (2) upon the learner, the mental and physical 
condition of his organism. He must keep himself in perfect 
condition and strenuously applied to the work ; the organism 
does all the rest. He needs but consciously to lay hold of 
and make proper use of the adaptations that are uncon- 
sciously fallen into, the habits and associations formed. 

* W. F. Book: op. ciL, p. 175. 

f Op. cit., p. 181. Used by permission of the author. 



148 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

All this suggests that if one wants to improve at the most 
rapid rate, he must work when he can feel well and suc- 
ceed, then lounge and wait until it is again profitable to 
work. It is when all the conditions are favorable that the 
forward steps or new adaptations in learning are made. 
Whether the older associations are at such a time also more 
rapidly perfected, or whether monotonous practice will 
answer as well in stimulating their growth, we cannot say." 

Formal discipline : educational transfer. — In the gymna- 
sium, a student can develop strength and skill which he 
can then put to use in many different directions. He gains 
such development through a course of a few general exer- 
cises. Can there not be a mental gymnasium? Formal 
discipline is the exercising of the mind on a few chosen 
branches, with the object of arousing and developing, 
through them, every mental faculty. 

There is much truth in this doctrine, but not so much as 
our forefathers in education supposed. They expected to 
develop "the" reason through mathematics, "the" imagi- 
nation through the classics, "the" memory through history. 
But the psychologist fails to find any such general faculty 
as "the" memory, for example. Each of us has a group of 
special memories, a good memory for figures, a poor one for 
faces, and so on; and history reaches but one of these special 
memories mainly, the memory for history. 

Still, the reading of Latin undoubtedly makes one more 
skillful in reading French. Such carrying over of efficiency 
from one kind of performance to another is known as "edu- 
cational transfer," or "transfer of training." 

Many of the problems involved in formal discipline and 
educational transfer are as yet unsolved. It seems evident 
that learning to swim will not teach one to play a piano. 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 149 

Yet when the first typewriter was made the manufacturers 
advertised for an operator who could play the piano. This 
points to the first method of transfer, by (1) identical ele- 
ments: pressing typewriter keys is much like striking piano 
keys; Latin words and French words are similar. It is 
probably true also that transfer is aided by (2) ideals. 
Neatness in language work may develop an ideal of neatness 
which affects all written work, provided this general ideal of 
neatness is deliberately encouraged in the pupils during the 
language teaching. Here we seem to appeal to a higher 
brain center which controls many lower centers. There 
is, then, such a thing as transfer, but no such thing as com- 
plete, hundred per cent transfer. Very likely the per cent 
of transfer increases as we rise from low-level through mid- 
level to high-level learning, and one would expect it to be 
affected greatly by the inborn abilities of the learner; but 
experiment has not determined these points. 

Thorndike is right in his contentions that (1) "it is ex- 
tremely unsafe to teach anything simply because of its 
supposed strengthening of attention or memory or reason- 
ing ability or any other mental power; when a teacher can 
give no other reason for a certain lesson or method of teach- 
ing than its value as discipline, the lesson or method should 
be changed." Also, (2) "that intelligence and care will be 
necessary to secure from any subject what disciplinary 
value it does have; we cannot expect that the mere fact that 
a certain subject is taught somehow will surely result in 
securing the disciplinary value which it may have when 
taught properly." * 

Fatigue. — In the first place we must distinguish between 

* Edward L. Thorndike, Principles of Teaching, pp. 242, 243. Used 
by permission of the author. 



150 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

being fatigued and feeling tired. Fatigue is a real lack of 
mental or muscular energy. The powder is all exploded. 
Tiredness is a feeling which usually accompanies such lack 
of energy, but which may be present when one is not fa- 
tigued. There is powder enough, but we feel indisposed to 
apply the spark. One who observes us can often judge, 
better than we ourselves can tell from our feelings, whether 
we are really fatigued. The teacher may know, better 
than do her pupils, whether or not they really need rest. 

Dr. D. M. Taylor's description of the fatigued child is 
instructive. The picture of a fatigued child, he says, is 
characteristic — the tired, drawn look, the clumsy move- 
ments, his listless conversation, his aversion to exert him- 
self, and his readiness to fall asleep. When the condition 
is becoming a chronic state another set of signs begin to 
manifest themselves, and the morning finds him sleepy and 
languid, his eyes dull, his pupils large, and his expression 
wearied. He drags himself to school, without alertness, 
his walk is " tottery" and awkward. In school he lacks 
attention and responds feebly, his gaze wanders, he is 
slouching in attitude, and he becomes peevish. The same 
causes continuing to act, matters become aggravated, and 
he arrives at the borderland of actual disease. He is pale 
and pinched, he suffers from headache, there is muscular 
twitching or incoordination, and he is susceptible to colds 
and to infectious disease; stomach troubles ensue, with loss 
of sleep, and exhausting dreams.* 

The stages of fatigue are fairly well marked. In the 
first stage, quantity of work increases, but quality decreases ; 
next, quantity also falls; finally comes exhaustion, or else a 
condition called fatigue-fever. In fatigue-fever, the desper- 

* Quoted by Rusk, p. 207. See References at close of chapter. 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 151 

ation of the worker causes him to throw off an increased 
quantity of work; but the quality of it is poor, and his own 
physical condition is shown by his weak, rapid pulse, quick 
and shallow breathing, and uncertain movements. 

Common sense is borne out by the finding that what- 
ever has been reduced to automatism is comparatively 
unfatiguing; that work not suited to our natural powers, 
or which is very disagreeable to our inclinations, fatigues us 
rapidly; that physical work causes mental fatigue; that 
even light work, when our energies are low, may be more 
injurious than heavy work when energy abounds; that the 
failure of memory and attention are among the first effects 
of mental fatigue. 

Studies of fatigue indicate, with regard to school pro- 
grams, that it would probably be wise to take two half 
holidays, on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, instead 
of a whole holiday on Saturday; that if afternoon sessions 
are retained the midday intermission should be as long as 
possible; that the energy of the child is highest in the morn- 
ing, decreases until noon, rises to its second highest point 
some three hours after the noon meal, and then gradually 
ebbs to its lowest. The school subjects, arranged in the 
order of their fatiguing power, are arithmetic (most fatigu- 
ing), gymnastics, music, language subjects, realistic con- 
crete subjects, and work involving the use of tools and shop 
materials. The pupils who are most susceptible to fatigue 
are the mentally and physically backward. Although 
liability to fatigue decreases with age, so that longer in- 
struction periods may safely be used in higher grades, 
yet it is in the higher schools that most cases of fatigue in- 
jury have been found. William Henry Pyle says in his 
Outlines of Educational Psychology that as far as any im- 



152 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

provement is concerned, drill work should stop short of 
considerable fatigue, in fact should stop as soon as fatigue 
is noticeable; and that as far as economy of work is con- 
cerned, there is little use in trying to learn after fatigue has 
become considerable. 

Fatigue among teachers has received little attention. 
Very likely most of us do not rest with sufficient frequency, 
brevity, and abandon. Very likely frequent short rests and 
vacations, surrendered to whole-hearted recreation, would 
obviate the necessity for long interruptions in our work. 
But if as teachers and pupils we daily recover from each 
day's work, we have the problem solved in a practical way 
at least. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

i. Learn the following: (a) Place the tip of your right 
thumb against the tip of your left forefinger, (b) Above 
this pair, place the tip of your left thumb against the tip 
of your right forefinger, (c) Separate the pair first joined, 
bring them above the second pair, and repeat (a), (d) 
Separate the second pair, bring them above the other two, 
and rejoin them. 

Repeat the whole process until you can easily keep it 
going at a good rate of speed. 

Recall your feelings as you learned it. 

2. Perform the above exercise rapidly before a group of 
children or adults and ask them to do it. Notice the awk- 
ward attempts, with here and there a success. Then, 
show them carefully, one step at a time, giving clear direc- 
tions, somewhat as above. Do they catch the idea? 

What does the exercise show? 

3. We teachers forget our old struggles to learn, and so 
grow impatient at the slowness of our pupils. If you want 
to appreciate their struggles, try buttoning buttons or 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 153 

writing, with the hand you do not usually use. Even this 
is less difficult than learning something thoroughly new. 

4. Try to discern the motives of those about you, espe- 
cially children : why do they do what they do? Test whether 
the motives listed in this chapter are really the most im- 
portant. 

5. Tell how you would form in your pupils the habit of 
doing neatly the work to be handed in to you; of maintain- 
ing quiet during the study period; of coming to school on 
time. On what instincts could you base these habits? 

6. Is it mere blind practice that " makes perfect"? What 
does? Show how this involves levels of learning. 

7. What instincts or other traits can we take advantage 
of to help a child to learn to read and write? 

8. Would you advise a high-school student to study 
Latin and Greek because of their " general disciplinary 
value"? Why? 

9. Recall your own school days. Make a list of the 
chief motives that led you to learn. Do you think your 
chief motives were those of your classmates also? 

10. One reason why people swear and use slang is because 
they have never learned to express themselves easily and 
freely in any other way. Do you believe this? Discuss it. 
What other motives probably operate in such cases? 

n. If mathematics develops a general power of reason- 
ing, why do we not choose expert mathematicians for all 
responsible positions? 

12. Study yourself a bit when you are fatigued: note the 
peculiar pull of the mouth muscles when you try to smile, 
the postures you naturally take, how you walk, the appear- 
ance of your face in the glass, especially the expression of 
the eye; notice the effect of fatigue on your temper, and 
on your work. Observe others, especially children, and try 
to discover when they are fatigued. Do you find them 
quick to admit it? 



154 THE SdENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

REFERENCES 

Book, William Frederick, Psychology of Skill, etc. 
Colvin and Bagley, Human Behavior, Chs. X, XI, XVII. 
Colvin, Stephen Sheldon, The Learning Process. 
Pyle, William Henry, Outlines of Educational Psychology, Ch. 
XV. 
Rusk, Robert R., Introduction to Experimental Education. 
Stoner, Winifred Sackville, Natural Education. 
Swift, E. J., Mind in the Making. 
Thorndike, Edward L., Principles of Teaching, Ch. XV. 



PART THREE 
METHOD AS RELATED TO THE TEACHER 



CHAPTER XIV 

KINDS OF LESSON AND HOW TO TEACH THEM 

"The result is that independence and self-reliance, either of reason- 
ing or observation, and the spontaneous love of nature which these 
spring from and engender, are not encouraged by the school, and in 
some cases are actually blighted by its influence. Secondhand knowl- 
edge is peddled out by the teacher in the shape of laboratory direc- 
tions, in lectures, through a textbook, or in catechetical form. The 
appeal for facts is not made to nature but to the teacher, who, when he 
gets as far as asking the pupil what he thinks, frequently furnishes the 
conclusion ready-made by telling him whether he is right or wrong. 
In such conditions, instead of studying nature the pupil is studying, in 
stupid and roundabout fashion, the mind of the teacher, and is not 
being helped to investigate for himself. If, on the contrary, the facts 
are sufficiently convincing, the pupil does not ask the teacher whether 
the idea is right or wrong.* 

Exercises. — Before reading this chapter, visit several 
classes and record the various purposes which you conclude 
the teachers are trying to attain, such as the acquisition of 
an act of skill, the ability to think, etc. Try to draw up a 
list of all possible kinds of lesson. 

Review Chapters VII, IX, X. 

Kinds of lesson. — We must let the children show us how 
to teach. If we want to know all the kinds of lessons to be 
taught, we must ask how many kinds the pupil can learn. 
This we can discover by a glance at his mental and bodily 
abilities. 

* Colin A. Scott, Social Education. Used by permission of Ginn 
and Company, publishers. 

i57 



158 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Abilities Lessons 

P > Lesson for Information 

To remember \ 



To imagine 
To think 



Lesson for Thought 

To feel Lesson for Appreciation 

To acquire skill (men- > Lesson for ^ 
tal or muscular) ) 

Whenever a child is learning, he is using some one (or 
more) of these abilities; and as we have studied them, we 
already know a great deal about the lessons based on them. 
The first two kinds of lesson suggest our discussion of the 
mind as a factory. When a child perceives and remembers, 
he is collecting and storing mental material; when he 
imagines and thinks, he is combining such material. The 
lesson for appreciation aims to educate the feelings. The 
lesson for skill explains itself.* 

THE LESSON FOR INFORMATION 

Purpose and value. — The purpose of the information 
lesson is to gather and store mental material. Sometimes 
this is done for pure pleasure. One is glad to learn the 
amazing structure of a snowflake, even if he never makes 

* All four kinds of lesson may appear in a single class exercise. For 
example, during a period in the manual-training shop pupils may 
(1) acquire information about the saw; (2) think out the problem of 
why its teeth are shaped as they are; (3) learn to appreciate what this 
tool has done and is doing for us; and (4) practice for skill in the use of 
the saw. 

But for the sake of clearness, it is well that we here consider each 
kind of lesson separately. 



KINDS OF LESSON 159 

practical use of the knowledge. But pupils are apt to pick 
up such pleasure knowledge for themselves, if they are given 
the chance. Whatever they acquire with effort should be 
taught from the standpoint of future use. We should not 
try to make walking encyclopedias of our pupils. The 
aim of the information lesson is to furnish the most valuable 
facts which are likely to be used, and for the most part used 
soon, for some large purpose, such as thinking, or the shap- 
ing of an act of skill, or the guiding of practical conduct, 
perhaps caring for health. 

The value of mere information is commonly overesti- 
mated. In the vulgar eye information is education. But 
it is often the backwoods philosopher who reads everything, 
knows everything, and does nothing. It is not what the 
factory takes in, but what it turns out that gives it value. 
The pupil cannot stock his mental storeroom once for all. 
He must learn to gather facts as he goes along, and to gather 
them in the light of need. Instead of fact stuffing, he should 
acquire locative knowledge, that is, knowledge of where facts 
are to be found, in books of reference, among people, or in 
the natural world, so he can find his material when he wants 
it. No good carpenter carries a lumber pile on his back. 

The teacher, too, may make the mistake of accepting 
from pupils mere information, or the blind repetition of 
book language, as sure evidence of thought or of the posses- 
sion of skill. Judged by this standard, phonographs and 
parrots are well on the way toward meriting a diploma! 
One may practice so mechanically the habit of repeating or 
copying, that he has no clear idea of what he has repeated or 
copied. We can probe such a case by cross-questions, or 
by the test of action, requiring the pupil to tell or show how 
to apply his knowledge. 



160 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

What should be committed to memory? — In answering 
this question, we must keep clearly in mind what we commit 
to memory for. The pupil should not make a mere garret of 
his mind by stowing it full of odds and ends that he may 
want to use sometime. He should learn that which is use- 
ful — which is most useful. 

What facts from our elementary education do we adults 
retain and use? The spelling of common words, a half 
dozen language rules, a few arithmetical principles, with 
addition and multiplication tables, a very limited number 
of dates in history, names of rivers, cities, etc., in geography, 
with the major facts of physiology and hygiene. These are 
the chief things — -and the list is not long. 

"But we actually make use of many principles, laws and 
facts not found in this brief list, even though we do not 
hold them in memory in verbal form." Of course, and this 
seems to show that our children should form more habits and 
do less memorizing verbatim. This means more practice 
in doing and less time spent in committing and repeating. 

Method in the information lesson. — We have already 
learned (see Chapter VII) that the most impressive way of 
gaining information is to "get at the real object whenever 
possible." We have found that some of our experience, as 
that of colors, tones, and other sense impressions, must be 
gotten in this direct way if it is gotten at all. 

If we cannot get at the real object we resort to the most 
realistic substitute for it, a model, picture, map, diagram, or 
the like. The substitute may be better than the real ob- 
ject, if the object is very great, very small, or very complex. 
A model of the solar system or a picture of a blood corpus- 
cle may give more and clearer information than a pupil 
can obtain from the originals. 



KINDS OF LESSON 161 

Reading and the lecture * furnish quick ways of massing 
what we may call secondhand information. We must see 
to it that the learner has a sufficient apperceptive basis for 
the understanding of what is heard or read; and he should 
do something from time to time to show that the book or the 
lecture is not soothing him to sleep instead of arousing him 
to action. 

Whenever thorough, scientific information is wanted, it 
is well to (i) analyze the object of study, (2) note the rela- 
tions of its parts to each other, and (3) synthesize, recon- 
struct it."}* 

THE LESSON FOR THOUGHT 

Follow scientific method. — Since the scientific spirit and 
ways of working have won for man his most striking suc- 
cesses (see Chapter I), we should encourage this spirit and 
method among our pupils. The little truth seeker in the 
schoolroom and the great scientist in his laboratory should 
follow the same steps; but the scientist takes each step 
consciously and deliberately, while the pupil may merely 
imitate his teacher and develop what we may call the habit 
of correct and careful thought. Deliberate, independent 
thinking is likely to come late, with maturity. 

Let us review the steps in scientific method and see how 
our lessons correspond with them. 

[ 1. Getting a definite question to 
Lesson for Information \ answer 

I 2. Collecting facts 

* See p. 174 for a discussion of the lecture method. 
f Analysis and synthesis are discussed further in the following 
chapter (Chapter XV). 

Science and Art of Teaching. — 11 



102 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

3. Generalizing 

4. Forming hypotheses 

5. Testing to find the true hy- 
pothesis 

6. Using the new truth as a basis 
for further reasoning 



Lesson for Thought 



It appears that we are not really ready to solve any problem 
until we have it stated definitely, and have gathered a 
respectable array of facts that bear on it.* 

Generalizing is an everyday necessity; no one cares to 
handle straws, or eggs, or facts, one at a time. We bale our 
straw, crate our eggs, sum up a thousand scattered facts in a 
single general statement. Because of the large business we 
do with facts, some such wholesale method is forced upon 
us. Consequently we fall into the habit of it; and again, 
consequently, we are likely to make many general state- 
ments that are loose, reckless, and untrue. 

Children do this almost daily. The little Republican 
concludes that "all Democrats are dangerous." Another 
may maintain that curly-haired men are dishonest, or that 
"snakes poison you," — some do, — or that the northern 
lights cause war. This childish habit comes partly from 
imitating elders, partly from the narrowness of a very 
limited experience. We must widen the experience, and 
break up the habit by forming the better one of being care- 
ful about what we say. 

A hypothesis is an attempted answer to the "definite 
question" with which we start. Most of what has been 



* How often do we argue at length, only to find, at the end, that we 
and our opponents have been talking about different propositions! 
We should state the question before we debate it. Sometimes, too, we 
plunge into a discussion with more feeling than fact to support us. 



KINDS OF LESSON 163 

said of generalization holds also of hypothesis; for most 
hypotheses are generalizations. Children, like adults, 
dodge the facts and jump at conclusions. A better way 
would be to jump at the facts and dodge conclusions for a 
time. School your pupils in testing out their theories to the 
limit of their knowledge. "The earth is flat." Good: hold 
to your opinion if you can; but explain why a ship disap- 
pears hull first as it goes out to sea, and why the earth's 
shadow on the moon is round.* 

Devices for stimulating thought. — The good old-fashioned 
debate is always in order. Many a topic divides a class 
into two camps, and it is well to let it stay divided for a 
time, if the subject is one that will not engender bad feeling. 
The teacher, with serious face, may suggest some false but 
common statement and let the class point out and prove 
its error. He should keep the argument orderly and pro- 
gressive, curbing the "smarty" and encouraging the timid. 

Questions may be given out, or if they appear incidentally 
in the lesson, reserved, with a challenge to find the answer 
overnight. At any time, following the grinding out of a 
grist of facts, pupils may be urged to bag their grist by 

* At this point, it is easy to distinguish (if anyone wishes to) be- 
tween inductive and deductive reasoning. The first four steps in 
scientific method as outlined are inductive. Induction is the pro- 
cedure from particular facts to a general truth. A dies, B dies, C dies, 
etc. Hence the general truth, "All men are mortal." Deduction is the 
application of a generalization to particular facts. "All men are 
mortal." Well, then, I know what will happen, some day, to Jones, 
Smith, and the rest of my neighbors. 

But if we are in danger of falling we do not argue as to whether we 
shall stand on our feet or hang by our hands; the essential thing is that 
we have reliable support of some kind. So the essential thing is not to 
discriminate nicely between induction and deduction, but to know 
that our statement has reliable support of some kind. _ 

It is desirable that all teachers have training in logic, and in prac- 
tical, friendly argument. 



1 64 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

including all in a single generalization. Numerous problems 
from daily life will draw out many hypotheses. Why do 
birds come back in the spring? Why do leaves turn color? 
Why do bubbles go up if you attach the bubble blower to 
the gas jet? Pupils persist most doggedly on the trail of 
those questions which are not artificially made by the 
teacher, but which bear on their daily life, interests, and 
occupations. 

In every critical case we must compel the pupil to back 
up his assertions, make him understand that noise, bluster, 
positiveness, will not take the place of fact. Socrates was 
right. That man is most eloquent who tells the plain truth. 
There are three test questions which it is well to apply to 
every important statement: i. Just what does this mean? 
2. Is it true? 3. How do I know? 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. Do you not think the " Lesson for Imagination" 
should receive special treatment? If so, devise some ex- 
ercises for such lessons. 

2. Under what circumstances should the material to be 
committed to memory be selected by the pupil? 

3. Which would you prefer to have a pupil do in any 
given lesson, think vigorously and reach a false conclusion, 
or proceed lackadaisically and chance upon a correct re- 
sult? Why? 

4. Outline some thought problems that can be solved by a 
fifth or sixth grade. 

5. In a certain school each pupil was in turn permitted 
to find and name a city on the map, — it was usually a small 
town, — after which the others hunted till they found it. 
Criticize this. 

6. A class commits to memory thoroughly many facts 



KINDS OF LESSON 165 

and definitions; the superintendent gives a test requiring 
considerable thought; the class fails. Who is to blame? 

7. Criticize the lessons for information and for thought 
that were taught you in your elementary school days. 

8. It was once thought that pupils should spend their 
early years collecting and memorizing facts, and their 
later years in thinking, based on those facts. Is this true? 
If not, what is true? 

9. Outline (1) an information lesson on " Slavery in the 
United States," and (2) a lesson for thought on the same 
topic. How do they differ? In which grade could each be 
given appropriately? 

10. Recall, if you can, some false generalizations, from 
your childhood days. How came you by them? 

11. If a thoughtful mind is like a running factory, a mind 
that is merely stocked with information is like a storehouse, 
where nothing moves, and the owner can take out only 
what he put in. 

1. Just what does this statement mean? 

2. Is it true? 

3. How do you know? 

12. State some definite problem in pedagogy, such as: 
How can my pupils memorize spelling more rapidly, from 
the board (each word being written, erased, and then vis- 
ualized), or from their books? Following the steps in scien- 
tific method, tell in some detail how you would proceed to 
investigate this problem. 

Having obtained an answer, could you be sure that it 
would hold for both girls and boys? For pupils of other 
ages? For any individual pupil in your room? 

REFERENCES 

See References following Chapter XV. 



CHAPTER XV 

KINDS OF LESSON AND HOW TO TEACH THEM 
(Continued) 

Exercise. — Review Chapters XI and XIII. 

THE LESSON FOR APPRECIATION 

Purpose, — The lesson for appreciation aims to arouse 
feeling and to direct it; to make the heart thrill, and to get 
that heart set on things worth while. We can see two ob- 
jects then: (i) pure pleasure, and (2) the forming of such 
likes and dislikes as will serve to control conduct, make the 
impulsive pupil see that the straight and narrow way is the 
through road to blessedness. 

(1) One can learn to find pleasure in almost every mo- 
ment, object, and event. The school should cultivate a 
sensitivity of soul to every beauty about us. It is wrong to 
spend all our time scientifically analyzing and classifying 
birds and blossoms; we must learn how to relax and revel 
in the pure enjoyment of them.* So with art as well as 
nature; music must not always be twanged out in fractions, 
nor painting be gauged by the rules in the book, nor poetry 
appreciated by the foot. What seems companionable to 
us should be bosomed and carried home and domesticated. 



* School means, literally, leisure. It should certainly furnish leisure 
enough for the enjoyment of nature, music, poetry, pictures, litera- 
ture, — all that is good. 

166 



KINDS OF LESSON 167 

Throughout life, each should have his own household gods 
and joy in their service. 

Practically, one of the large functions of the appreciation 
lesson is to teach the wise use of leisure. In the case of many 
individuals, it is fully as important to teach them how to 
seek pleasure rationally during those free hours when their 
salvation depends on their own insight and self-direction, as 
it is to develop a vocational skill which will be exercised 
under the constant oversight of a foreman. Nights of 
pleasure are much more dangerous for most of us than 
days of work. 

(2) Our lighter feelings may seem as capricious as the 
winds and waves, but our deeper sentiments ebb and flow 
like great tides, fairly well fixed in their behavior. How 
much would it take to destroy our love of country or home, 
our attachment for church or friends, our devotion to our 
work or even to an ideal! History, literature, moral train- 
ing, — every branch should work to turn the currents of 
the child's affections toward the true, the beautiful, the 
good. 

The lesson for appreciation then is not always a mere 
pleasure lesson, or enjoyment lesson. A funeral is often an 
effective appreciation lesson. We must learn to assign a 
proper value to the sad, stern things of life, such as poverty, 
vice, and crime, as well as to more agreeable experiences. 

Method of the appreciation lesson. — We cannot create 
feeling at command. That is why so many well-meant 
exhortations are so useless. The empty command to "love 
the flag" would never make devoted patriots. Our feelings 
follow our perceptions, ideas, and acts, clothing and beauti- 
fying (or uglifying) them as flesh and skin clothe and grace 
the skeleton. We must control the feelings by controlling 



1 68 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

the perceptions and ideas that underlie them. There are 
two effective ways of doing this, (i) by contemplation, and 
(2) by participation. 

(1) Contemplation serves to hold the cherished object in 
mind and let the associations play about it, each new sug- 
gestion bringing its tributary rill of feeling.* So we may 
contemplate a picture, a poem, a landscape, a memory, an 
ideal, until its beauties blossom in our souls. The teacher's 
work lies in bringing her pupils into the presence of these 
beauties, and in calling attention to them, arousing affective 
associations in connection with them. 

(2) Participation in any kind of activity is likely to en- 
rich feeling. While a study of the history and meaning of 
our flag is likely to arouse affection for it, yet he who has 
served under the Stars and Stripes feels for the old flag a 
love such as mere contemplation can never engender. As 
teachers, we must try to get our pupils active in the cause 
we would have them support. Indeed, psychology teaches 
that it is mentally unwholesome to arouse emotion without 
giving vent to the emotion in action. f One aim of the 
appreciation lesson is to form ideals; and an ideal formed 
without action is likely to lack the vitality that comes from 
exercise. 

Imitation forms a strong motive to appreciation. Feeling 
often flows like magic through a group, and the larger the 
number affected, the stronger is the mass effect on each. 
Let the teacher show heartfelt admiration for a work of art 
or an unselfish deed, and she will excite a similar admiration 



* A jeweler tells me he can spend a happy hour examining a good 
diamond with a microscope. He is no miser, but a man of strongly 
aesthetic nature. 

fTo quote Elbert Hubbard: "Motion must equal emotion," 



KINDS OF LESSON 169 

in her pupils. But she must take care; let her simulate, act, 
gush, and she may only arouse their disgust. 



THE LESSON FOR SKILL 

What acts of skill should be acquired?— As the acquisi- 
tion of skill is costly in time and effort, we should know, 
first, the purpose and value of such acts. (1) Certain skills, 
such as buttoning clothes, buttering bread, writing, and 
using the mother tongue correctly, are required of all. 
(2) Other skills are necessary to future acquisitions. Ex- 
amples are the mastery of the alphabet and the multiplica- 
tion table. (3) Special skills are demanded in the various 
vocations. It would be difficult to catalogue the particular 
acts of skill to be taught in any school, but it should not be 
difficult for the teacher to determine in any case, whether a 
given skill is worth to a certain pupil the labor of acquisi- 
tion. A graceful. walk is important; dancing is less so. 

Drill.* — Probably the most difficult part of this process 
lies in obtaining sufficient drill without making the process 
wearisome by its monotony. Perhaps this is due in part 
to the fact that the old-fashioned drill was blind, long, and 
unvaried. The drill period should be short; for young 
children, not more than ten or fifteen minutes. It requires 
a strong and fairly mature nervous system to withstand a 
half hour of rapid drill without undue fatigue. 

A proper distribution of drill periods will insure the 
desired results. Better two fifteen-minute periods daily 
than one thirty-minute period. Better two thirty-minute 
periods or three twenty-minute periods for grammar and 
high-school pupils than an hour of solid work. Regularity, 

* A suggestive drill lesson is found on page 197. 



170 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

too, is a factor. The student who settles down to his prac- 
tice at eight o'clock each evening will far outstrip the bril- 
liant but intermittent worker. While there is a legitimate 
lounging time in the learning process, too much reliance on 
it is likely to establish the habit of laziness. 

The drill should be varied in detail, though the funda- 
mental process must not be changed. Six times seven are 
forty-two : we can tap on the floor six times with a pointer, 
each rap standing for seven; or let the combination appear 
on one of a series of cards; or put it into a problem; or let 
pupils base a story on the fact; or write it in red crayon; 
or add a column of six sevens, etc. The best process, of 
course, so long as interest can be maintained in it, is the one 
most like that of actual life. So the drill in spelling should 
be mainly written, the drill in language mainly oral. For 
this very reason we should have much more drill than at 
present in rapid, silent reading, followed by an oral report. 

Further (as has been stated before), the most difficult 
parts of the skill act should be isolated for special drill. 
The most difficult words in a series of lessons, the hardest 
combinations in the multiplication table, the most impor- 
tant dates in history, and the like, should be listed and 
drilled, to the comparative neglect of the easy and unim- 
portant. 

But the easy and comparatively unimportant must not 
drop totally out of sight. When a series such as the multi- 
plication table is to be drilled upon, it is well to have each 
item on a separate card, or otherwise isolated, to make sure 
that, in our random skipping about, no part is entirely 
neglected. 

The pupil's errors should be corrected persistently; in 
fact, we should in most cases prevent his making them if we 



KINDS OF LESSON 17I 

can. The marksman who misses the target improves much 
more rapidly, if he is told where he does hit. The pupil 
should be told, one item at a time, just what he is doing that 
he ought not to do, as well as what he is not doing but should 
do, and then he should be given the correct form. This is 
the main reason why concert drill is bad; in many subjects 
we cannot discover and correct individual errors. We 
must keep the ideal clearly in mind, or our practice is vain. 
As White well says, Repetitio mater studiorum becomes 
Repetitio mater stupidorum* unless we work under the in- 
spiration and guidance of clear ideals. 

Greater than the details of the process is the determined 
attitude of the conqueror. Keep the picture of success 
vividly before the pupil, and if he is made of the right stuff 
he can endure anything. The fact that he will not endure 
hardship is a severe reflection on him. The best incentive, 
wherever it can be appreciated, is the vision of the result 
in terms of efficiency. 

METHODS COMMON TO ALL LESSONS 

Oral and written work. — Those teachers are very rare 
whose tendency is toward too much oral work. From the 
time the pupil learns to print or write, all the way through 
his university course, his labors with pencil and pen are 
likely to interfere with his education. Turning to life out- 
side of school, we find that few adults do much writing: 
even the arithmetic of everyday life is largely oral, and none 
records his history, or geography, or physiology. If we 
consider the amount of talking we do as compared with our 
letter and other writing, it appears that even in language 

* "Repetition is the mother of learning" becomes "Repetition is 
the mother of stupidity." 



172 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

work we may well ease ringer cramp by working the tongue 
muscles. The future for which we are preparing most of 
our pupils is not so much a writing future as a talking 
future. 

True, the school may have ends of its own that justify 
much writing, but the burden of proof is certainly on the 
advocate of the pen. If it is urged, for example, that all 
can write at one time, whereas not all can talk at once, we 
may reply that all can listen, all can think at one time; 
that the stimulus of new ideas is much greater than when 
each sits isolated by silence; and that even a fraction of the 
time devoted to writing would suffice to utter all the words 
penned. In the case of certain motor-minded pupils, writ- 
ing is the most economical way of inducing reliable memory. 
Here the time-killing process justifies itself. 

Correction, too, is much more easily accomplished orally, 
and is likely to produce a deeper psychological effect. If 
the pupil blunders in speech he can be halted on the instant, 
and the right nervous channel opened immediately, and 
cleared by a few repetitions. When writing, he goes on 
practicing his error, deepening the wrong nervous outlet, 
and the blue pencil of the teacher strikes too late. In case 
of dictation or written drill of any kind, a nearly immediate 
correction is furnished by the teacher's exhibiting the stand- 
ard form, and directing the pupils as they detect and rectify 
all deviations from it. This also enables one to rid himself 
legitimately of many irksome bundles of exercises whose 
correction consumes his evening time and may even form 
a real barrier to his professional improvement. 

Another good plan, especially with large classes, is to 
have pupils write rather frequent brief papers. These can 
be scanned rapidly, and without either marking or return- 



KINDS OF LESSON 173 

ing them the most common errors and misconceptions can 
be corrected vividly in the classroom. This, if supplemented 
by judicious board work and by occasional test papers 
thoroughly corrected and thoroughly re-read by the pupil — 
it is often wise to take class time for this immediately upon 
the return of the paper — will usually prove sufficient to 
establish good written practice. All teachers who work 
together should unite on a simple system of proof readers' 
or rhetoricians' symbols to indicate errors in English, which 
should be used in the correction of papers in all branches. 
No matter how excellent the teaching of English, good 
usage is likely to be grossly and habitually violated unless 
teachers, in addition to pushing their specialties, unite in 
an effort to maintain the purity of the mother tongue. 

Analysis and synthesis. — The objects to be analyzed may 
be either concrete or abstract. We analyze a flower by ac- 
tually pulling it to pieces, or at least noting the number and 
relation of the parts as they stand. We analyze a sentence, 
a thought, a sermon, not by handling or viewing its parts, 
but by a purely mental process. It is true there may be 
some physical accompaniment to assist our imagery; we 
may utter the thought, or outline the sermon in writing. 

Usually the chief reason for analyzing anything is to find 
how its parts go together, in order to build it up, synthesize 
it, and control it. So we analyze a square into unit squares 
and derive the rule for finding its area; in reading and writ- 
ing we analyze words into sounds and letters, for the sake of 
rebuilding and controlling these words. Very similar and 
confusing objects can often be analyzed to advantage, as 
the similar parts of Latin verbs, or of such words as afiect 
and e/fect, or such numbers as 20,000 and 200,000. 

Relation of parts is especially important where the same 



174 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

elements, differently combined, produce different wholes, 
as d-o-g and g-o-d for young children, or graph-o-phone and 
pkon-o-graph for older ones, or the numbers 12 and 21, or 
the place of the decimal point, or the order of words in such 
a sentence as John struck James, or the inversion of the 
right fraction in dividing.* 

Lecture method, topical method, question method.— 
These are the three general ways by which teacher and 
pupils can communicate with each other. Their values 
ought to be fairly evident to one who is clear as to what he 
is trying to accomplish. Probably the most important 
principle to remember is that no one of them should be used 
incessantly. 

The lecture or sermon method adapts itself well to in- 
formation and appreciation lessons. Its use should depend 
largely on the age and earnestness of the class. So long as 
the mind of the pupil follows the thought of the instructor, 
all is well; the teacher should interrupt his talk with ques- 
tions and discussions, and encourage his pupils to interrupt 
him, frequently enough to make sure that the mental con- 
tact points are sufficiently close for a current to pass. The 
lecture method is likely to entail great thoroughness of 
preparation on the part of the teacher, and laxity among 
the pupils. It should be supported by quizzes and written 
lessons or some form of practical accomplishment. There 



* How far analysis should be carried in any case depends on the 
purpose in view, for theoretically it has no readily approachable limit. 
It would be silly, in an art lesson, to analyze the body into cells, and 
these in turn into molecules and atoms. But it would be equally 
foolish not to recognize that human beings are composed of head, 
trunk, and limbs. We may analyze a sentence into subject and 
predicate merely, or into words, or go further and analyze these words 
into sounds or letters, according to what we are trying to do, what we 
want our information/^. 



KINDS OF LESSON 175 

is special need of some kind of exercise that requires inde- 
pendent thought. 

The topical method reverses matters ; the pupil is required 
to lecture to the teacher. In other words, he is given a topic 
and is asked to tell what he can about it. Such a method, 
with its demands for organization of matter, for deft use of 
language, for sustained effort, is better suited to reviews 
than to new lessons. The advance lesson is likely to be 
scrappy and unorganized in the pupil's consciousness, not 
fully apperceived, laden with new terms not yet under con- 
trol. To insist that such fragmentary material be worked 
up into smoothly flowing paragraphs means to drive the 
average pupil to memoriter work, unless he is given time to 
write his discussion. With reviews, even the brief daily 
.reviews that introduce most lessons, the case is different; 
the matter ought to have undergone some assimilation, and 
a pupil should be able to recite freely in topics, up to the 
limit of his linguistic ability. 

The question method will be discussed thoroughly in the 
next chapter. 

Reviews and tests. — In the outside world we find that 
reviews and tests are undertaken for very practical purposes. 
The business man frequently reviews during his evening 
leisure the events of each day, but most of his information 
is "on file" rather than "on tap." The physician carries 
about with him sufficient knowledge to meet the demands 
of ordinary practice, but studies special cases and "reads 
up" the disease which threatens an epidemic. In each case 
there is a practical demand to be met, and knowledge or 
skill is revived to meet it. 

The difficulty in school is that there are not enough 
practical demands that are felt by the child to be such. His 



176 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

little ordeals are artificial, teacher-made troubles. If only 
there were something he really wanted to accomplish, the 
review or test could be made to stand between him and its 
accomplishment. If his highest ideal is to "pass," it may 
goad him on to large scholastic inflation at certain times of 
year. But the true review or test is different; it is the next 
necessary step to solid attainment, an accumulation of force 
in order to attack a new problem. 

It is unnecessary, then, to cover every detail of the sub- 
ject reviewed. We should adopt the method of history, scan 
the past to find what it can yield of value to the future. 
The same truth applies to our tests. They should not be 
mere random displays of the pupil's interior furnishings, but 
a run of the engine to find if it is ready to take the road, with 
an inspection to see that all the necessary tools are in place. 

77 is most important to review every day, briefly, the lesson 
of the preceding day. Our series of daily lessons should over- 
lap like steps, each resting on the one below it. Teachers 
have to learn, often by bitter disappointment on examina- 
tion day, that so far as concerns the practical survival of 
facts in the minds of pupils, the law of frequency is the law 
of life. 

It helps us much in shaping our reviews and tests, if we 
are clear as to whether we should require from the pupil 
information, thought, appreciation, or skill. Skill is easily 
tested. There is a definite act to be performed; let the pupil 
prove himself by performing it. Only Ulysses can string 
Ulysses' bow. 

In testing for information, it is better not to require any 
particular bits of it, any more than one would require a man 
to have among his small change a coin of a certain denomi- 
nation and date. Let him show what he has, and see if it 



KINDS OF LESSON 177 

makes a respectable display. Give the pupil good, sizable 
topics and let him discuss them, showing how many facts 
he has and how well he can marshal them. Of course some 
pieces of information are important because they are like 
keys, a means of controlling larger bulks. Such, for ex- 
ample, is the knowledge of where to place the decimal 
point. Such items must be well drilled in, and may then be 
demanded of all. 

It is more difficult to test for thought. Information is 
supposed to be kept in stock to some extent, but real thought 
is a kind of original creation which cannot be forced, — wit- 
ness the reward awaiting him who can produce a single new 
thought in art, literature, or mechanics. Perhaps we can 
wisely subdivide thinking into the imitative and the original. 
Given the number of pounds and the price per pound, a 
pupil should be able to " think out" the cost of a bag of 
sugar, if he has had practice in such work. But no problem 
which requires the discovery of a thoroughly new mental 
association, or the recognition of an old one in an utterly 
strange form, should be given in the course of the ordinary 
examination. Thinking is like mining. All you can do is to 
delve away, following the best lead you have; but when 
you are to strike ore depends largely on the luck. 

Appreciation cannot be gauged accurately by ordinary 
schoolroom tests. This is unfortunate, for appreciation 
stands close to conduct and to life. It is trying to us 
teachers to know that our most precious product is too 
complex for ready measurement. 

Examinations.— The traditional final examination, a test 
which, independently of all class records, determined the 
status of the candidate, is gone, we hope, forever. But only 
the sentiment of an extremist would sacrifice all examina- 

Science and Art of Teaching. — 12 



178 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

tions because some have been abused. Examinations given 
by principal, superintendent, supervisor, state board, or 
some other inspecting agency may all be made to serve a 
high purpose and work for real efficiency. In spite of all the 
ancient objections, the right kind of pupil does not wish to 
escape the right kind of examination, given by the right 
kind of examiner. 

The examiner should keep ever in mind the purpose of his 
examination, the scope he can legitimately cover, the com- 
plexity permissible in the time at the disposal of the candi- 
date, and the aims to which the instructor has devoted his 
efforts. He should be a man of judicial temperament, 
one who will not be influenced — to take Binet's example — 
by the sourness of his stomach, or by his inward desire to 
see certain candidates or classes succeed or fail. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

i. Explain in psychological terms the difference between 
learning an act of skill and committing to memory the rule 
for performing the act. 

2. Which should you value most highly, information 
concerning the technique of music, critical appreciation 
of others' music, or the ability to produce music yourself? 
Why? Should your view determine what you emphasize 
in teaching your pupils? 

3. Analyze the following acts of skill into their simplest 
component acts: writing, reading, making a speech, lacing 
shoes, sawing off a board. 

4. Resolved that it is more educative, that is, mentally 
beneficial, to be an amateur in many different sports than to 
be expert in one. Debate this. 

5. Invent some ways of varying the drill on the most 
important dates in history; the chief cities in geography. 



KINDS OF LESSON 179 

6. State some ways of isolating for special drill the most 
difficult combinations of the multiplication table; the hard- 
est words in the reading or spelling lesson ; the most common 
grammatical blunders made by your pupils. 

7. Describe some experience that developed in you a 
degree of appreciation for a certain fact, or object, or law, 
or moral truth. 

8. How would a boy "review " baseball if he expected to 
play an important game? How, if he expected to serve as 
umpire? 

9. Wishing to employ a house servant or chauffeur, you 
give each applicant a written examination only. Comment 
on this. 

to. Show how current events can be used in the apprecia- 
tion lesson. 

REFERENCES 

Charters, W. W., Methods of Teaching, Chs. VIII, XXI, 
XXIII. 

Gordy, J. P., A Broader Elementary Education, Ch. XVIII. 

Hamilton, Samuel, The Recitation. 

Landon, Joseph, Principles and Practice of Teaching, etc., 
Chs. Ill, V; and Parts III, IV, and V, of Ch. VI. 

Scott, Colin A., Social Education, Ch. VIII. 

Spencer, Herbert, Education. (See especially Chapter I, 
"What Knowledge is of Most Worth.") 

Strayer, George Drayton, Brief Course in the Teaching Process, 
Chs. IV, V, VI, VII, IX, X. 

White, Emerson E., Examinations and Promotions in Graded 
Schools. (U. S. Bureau of Education.) 



CHAPTER XVI 

QUESTIONING 

"In a well-conducted class, we have actors only and no audience 
['public']; each should play his part of greater or less importance, 
according to the piece and to his own ability. Or better still, if I may 
be permitted a second comparison, a class should be like an orchestra; 
but in an orchestra, there are none but players. No one plays from 
beginning to end of the selection; but there is no one who does not 
play, even if only for an instant, be it only to strike a single note at the 
right time, a blow on the tam-tam or on the big drum; all come into 
play, giving strict attention to the moment of striking in and to the 
performance of their parts. The solos are reserved for the better 
musicians, and the leader of the orchestra (yourself, teacher) directs 
the performers, ever turning, now to one, now to another, indicating 
by the stroke of his baton when the time is come to strike up; making 
look and gesture significant, not using his own instrument except 
when he perceives the performers losing spirit and wishes to encourage 
the orchestra. 

" So in the class, it is needless that any should be inert or dead, as 
too often happens; life should run from seat to seat, stirring up the 
sleepy, inciting the dull, stimulating the indifferent, drawing all this 
little world into the same current. The energy the master employs 
in creating and sustaining this movement will be much better em- 
ployed than that which he would use up in the wasteful effort of doing 
all the talking himself." 

Vessiot. (Translated from the French.) 

Exercises. — How do you feel when a question is put to 
you? What is a question, psychologically considered? 
What relation does it bear to scientific procedure? 

Make a list of questions such as you would use in teach- 
ing a third grade, "The Meaning of the Fourth of July." 

180 



QUESTIONING 181 

Make a similar list of questions to be used for the same 
purpose in an eighth grade class. 

Importance of questioning. — "What is most important 
in good teaching?" was asked of an old teacher. "Good 
questioning." "And what next?" "Good questioning." 
"And what third? " " Good questioning, — and so on to the 
end." This story, given by a French author, is reenforced 
by the aphorism of another French educator who says, 
Savoir interroger, c'est savoir enseigner! (To know how to 
question is to know how to teach.) 

Our environment is one perpetual question. Wonder is 
the beginning of wisdom. We have seen that the first step 
in scientific method is "getting a definite question to an- 
swer." The teacher must furnish such questions. 

Purpose of questions. — The question stimulates. To ask, 
"What causes dew?" rouses the pupil much more than to 
say to him, "Dew is caused by the contact of moist air with 
a body colder than itself." By questions we test the learner, 
perhaps make him feel that his mind is being thrown open 
to the public gaze; we find where his education leaves off, 
where we must begin to develop it; and we use the question 
constantly as a spur to such development.* It is wise, 
sometimes, to throw out a wonder question at the opening 
of a lesson, even one so difficult as to defeat the whole class 
temporarily, but which can be stormed and taken, in the 
course of a campaign of questions. 

Further, question and answer serve to place teacher and 
pupil on a common level and maintain what may be called 
mental contact. Stiffness and formality are removed, and 
the lesson becomes conversational, natural. He is a skillful 



See the exercise at the close of the chapter. 



l82 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

teacher who can induce his pupils to question him and 
question each other intelligently. 

Finally, questioning is an excellent means of maintaining 
order and centering attention on the particular point under 
discussion. Let the class learn that the shepherd has a crook 
in the form of a question mark, with which he captures 
the wandering sheep, and there will be little wandering. 

Attitude of the teacher. — Questioning is more likely 
than are most other exercises to cause friction, irritation, 
perhaps resentment. The teacher should maintain toward 
the class a well-balanced attitude of dignified sympathy, 
kindliness, cooperation, firmness, restrained enthusiasm. 
She is not there to quiz her class into an appearance of 
knowledge which they do not possess, to pull them through 
in spite of themselves; nor to prove that their highest 
wisdom does not exceed the level of her lowest folly, to 
humiliate them in spite of themselves; but to meet them 
cordially on their own level and question them up to hers. 

Kinds of questions. — When we ask a question we should 
know just what kind of challenge we are putting to the pu- 
pil, whether we require that he perceive, remember, im- 
agine, think, show his appreciation, or demonstrate his skill. 
Probably the simplest way to keep this in mind is to classify 
questions as we do lessons: "When did Columbus discover 
America?" calls for information; "If the earth fell, where 
would it go? " requires thought; "Who is the greatest Ameri- 
can? " opens an opportunity for appreciation; "How many 
words a minute can you write? " is a test of skill. 

Qualities of good questions. — Questions must be clear. 
We but waste our breath if we fail to make the pupil under- 
stand what is wanted. Usually our questions will be brief 
and expressed in simple words. Always they will be adapted 



QUESTIONING 183 

to the age and development of the pupil. "What gregarious 
animals have their habitat in rural regions? " would hardly 
be understood by a fifth-grade child. "What animals are 
found in flocks or herds in the country? " would be better; 
but if the pupil has never been to the country, he may still 
be unable to answer. 

The good question permits but one answer. Putting such 
a question is like holding up one half of a solid, such as the 
cone or the sphere, and asking the pupil to produce the other 
half; or like pointing to some niche of a half -completed pic- 
ture puzzle and asking for the piece that will fit it. This 
eliminates vague and general questions. As a rule, do not 
ask : "Who was Caesar? " or, "What have you to say of this 
poem of Longfellow's?" "On what river is Harrisburg? " 
is much better than "Where is Harrisburg? " if it is the fact 
of location on a river that is to be emphasized. But ques- 
tions that are faulty in this respect when standing alone 
may be clear in a context of related questions.* 

A series of questions should be so linked together, con- 
catenated, as to urge the pupil toward a conclusion or cli- 
max. It is absolutely necessary that the teacher know the 
point she is steering for. In teaching Tennyson's Crossing 
the Bar, for example, it is ruinous to the splendid sentiment 
of the poem to drag in all the details of harbor construction. 
In teaching Caesar's Commentaries one should not question 
about the whole military organization of Rome unless that 
is one of the avowed objects of the study. We should turn 
on only so many side lights as will show up our star subject 
in clear relief. We cannot too often remind ourselves that 

* Emphasis, too, often shows which possible answer is required. 
"Did Christopher Columbus discover the maritime route to the 
Indies?" Such a question may refer primarily to Columbus, to the 
Indies, or to the discovery; emphasis determines which. 



184 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

the high road to success lies in a clear discernment of the 
purpose to be achieved and an everlasting push toward its 
attainment. 

Questions to be avoided. — Probably the most common 
and worst fault of all is that of rambling, merely filling in the 
time with questions of some sort, instead of pushing on to a 
definite conclusion. 

Questions that suggest the answer are useless. Such are 
" What do you call a man who robs another? " " Did Caesar 
cross the Rubicon?" But questions that imply a false an- 
swer are frequently valuable to test the suggestibility of the 
pupil; as, "Why did the North favor slavery?" 

Questions that open but two alternatives, one type of 
these being the yes-or-no questions, are usually condemna- 
ble. If a coin is tossed a thousand times it will turn about 
five hundred heads and as many tails. If asked to foretell 
the result of each fall, we could give the same answer every 
time, without thought, and be certain of making fifty per 
cent on the test, in the long run. A pupil who knows noth- 
ing whatever about a subject can answer the ordinary yes- 
or-no questions without thought and be right half the time. 
It is very difficult, however, to avoid these questions alto- 
gether; and if the answers are followed up and subjected to 
further testing, all is well. 

The common sense of every teacher will lead her to 
beware of a fixed set of questions, a catechism consisting, 
perhaps, of difficult definitions and other statements too 
profound, for the most part, for the young responders to 
understand. Any teacher who thus deceives herself and 
her casual visitors should have a superintendent who will 
prick the bubble by asking for a practical application of the 
truths expressed. 



QUESTIONING 185 

We should never, under ordinary circumstances, attempt 
to question pupils into thinking out conventional knowledge, 
such as the name of a river. If such facts are unknown when 
the need for them arises, they must simply be supplied. We 
can question out thought, but not information. 

Calling on pupils. — When a question requiring thought 
is given out, there should be a pause to afford time for 
reflection, after which should follow the name of the pupil 
who is to answer. If the name of the pupil precedes the 
question, all the others can safely cease their search for the 
answer. Hand raising may be permitted, but any bustle 
or outcry of answers should be subdued at once. Teachers 
who have been falsely taught that they must work con- 
stantly at top speed and lift the safety valve with enthusi- 
asm are likely to call forth such disorder, through imitation 
of their rapid movements and high-keyed voices. But if one 
is able to stand or sit still and yet put vigor into his work, 
he will easily subdue the too high waves of excitement. 

It is of course unwise, as a rule, to call on pupils in any 
fixed order; and for most teachers it is worse than useless to 
shuffle cards bearing the names of the pupils, or use any such 
device to determine who shall receive the next question. To 
revert to the figure of the class as an orchestra, each ques- 
tion will often suggest the pupil who can most appropriately 
supply the answer, and who should " strike up" at this 
point. It is not a bad plan to make a considerable propor- 
tion of the questions simple, and distribute them among 
the weaker members of the class, keeping the better brains 
as reserves for emergencies. Whoever reaches the duller 
pupils teacltes all the pupils. 

Excepting when we wish to emphasize some statement 
by the force of united repetition, we should avoid concert 



l86 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

recitations. Each learner should as a rule be thrown on his 
own responsibility. But it is an excellent practice to give 
out unusually difficult questions to the class as a whole and 
let them combine their wits in its solution, keeping up a 
searching fire of minor questions to separate false answers 
from true. 

Answers. — It ought to be unnecessary to say that an 
answer should be conceived by the pupil who gives it. An- 
swers must be accurate, expressed in good English, com- 
plete, but not too inclusive or rambling. Completeness does 
not imply that yes or no or other abbreviated answers may 
not be used. They should be used habitually, as all sensible 
people in ordinary intercourse use them, except, possibly, 
when young pupils are learning the language. But mono- 
syllabic grunts, or poor English, choppy and infirm, or 
muttering in low tones should not fail of correction. The 
attitude and behavior of the pupil while answering should be 
just that of all cultivated people in public places, neither 
slouchy, nor stiff with the starch of formality. 

No pupil should be interrupted while answering, except 
to correct a fault so grave that the interruption is desirable 
to emphasize the correction. 

Very conscientious or traditionally minded teachers 
sometimes feel that each recitation of every pupil should 
receive a mark. Such a process may be necessary occasion- 
ally; but speaking generally the time so occupied is wasted. 



FOR FURTHER STUDY 

Following is a most excellent example of questioning, 
quoted from Fitch, who took it from Plato. The student 
should read it carefully, criticizing the questions both favor- 



QUESTIONING 187 

ably and adversely, noting in particular the exposition of 
error, and the compulsion to think, — to think the truth. 

There was one of the disciples of Socrates, named Meno, who had 
been thus probed and interrogated until he felt a somewhat uncom- 
fortable conviction that he was not so wise as he had thought, and 
who complained to the philosopher of what he called the merely- 
negative character of his instruction. 

"Why, Socrates," said he, "you remind me of that broad sea fish 
called the torpedo, which produces a numbness in the person who ap- 
proaches and touches it. For, in truth, I seem benumbed both in 
mind and mouth, and know not what to reply to you, and yet I have 
often spoken on this subject with great fluency and success." 

In reply Socrates says little, but calls to him Meno's attendant, a 
young slave boy, and begins to question him. 

"My boy, do you know what figure this is?" (drawing a square 
upon the ground with a stick) . 

"O yes. It is a square." 

"What do you notice about these lines?" (tracing them). 

"That all four are equal." 

"Could there be another space like this, only larger or less?" 

"Certainly." 

"Suppose this line (pointing to one of the sides) is two feet long, 
how many feet will there be in the whole? " 

"Twice two." 

"How many is that?" 

"Four." 

"Will it be possible to have another space twice this size?" 

"Yes." 

"How many square feet will it contain?" 

"Eight." 

"Then how long will the sides of such a space be?" 

"It is plain, Socrates, that it will be twice the length." 

" You see, Meno, that I teach this boy nothing, I only question him. 
And he thinks he knows the right answer to my question; but does 
he know?" 

"Certainly not," replied Meno. 

"Let us return to him again." 



l88 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

"My boy, you say that from a line of four feet long there will be 
produced a space of eight square feet; is it so?" 

"Yes, Socrates, I think so." 

"Let us try, then." (He prolongs the line to double the length.) 

"Is this the line you mean?" 

"Certainly." (He completes the square.) 

"How large is become the whole space?" 

"Why it is four times as large." 

"How many feet does it contain?" 

"Sixteen." 

"How many ought double the square to contain?" 

"Eight." 

After a few more questions the lad suggests that the line should be 
three feet long since four feet are too much. 

"If, then, it be three feet, we will add the half of the first line to it, 
shall we?" 

"Yes." (He draws the whole square on a line of three feet.) 

"Now, if the first square we drew contained twice two feet, and the 
second four times four feet, how many does the last contain?" 

"Three times three, Socrates." 

"And how many ought it to contain?" 

"Only eight, or one less than nine." 

"Well, now, since this is not the line on which to draw the square we 
wanted, tell me how long it should be." 

"Indeed, sir, I don't know." 

"Now observe, Meno, what has happened to this boy; you see 
he did not know at first, neither does he yet know. But he then an- 
swered boldly, because he fancied he knew; now he is quite at a 
loss, and though he is still as ignorant as before, he does not think he 
knows." 

Meno replies, "What you say is quite true, Socrates." 

"Is he not, then, in a better state now in respect to the matter of 
which he was ignorant?" 

"Most assuredly he is." 

"In causing him to be thus at a loss, and benumbing him like a 
torpedo, have we done him any harm?" 

"None, certainly." 

"We have at least made some progress toward finding out his true 



QUESTIONING 189 

position. For now, knowing nothing, he is more likely to inquire and 
search for himself." 

REFERENCES 

Fitch, J. G., The Art of Questioning. 

Landon, Joseph, The Art of Questioning. 

Strayer, George Drayton, Brief Course in the Teaching Proc- 
ess, Ch. XL 

Parker, Samuel Chester, Methods of Teaching in High Schools, 
Ch.XX. 



CHAPTER XVII 

PLANNING THE LESSON 

"' Notes' should be to the lesson what the artist's careful design, or 
sketch in color, is to the finished picture — a sketch containing all the 
essentials, but not burdened with the many small details which will 
come out in the work itself." * 

Exercise. — Recall some lesson which has impressed you 
deeply, and try to work out an outline of it, such as you 
think your teacher must have followed when teaching it to 
you. 

When you have read this chapter, criticize your plan. 
Then take or send it to the teacher in question, for comment. 
Find out the usual practice of this teacher with regard to 
lesson plans. 

Purpose and value of the lesson plan. — Teachers (like 
most other human beings) are prone to quiddle, to flit from 
one petty point to another and arrive nowhere in particular. 
The lesson plan compels us to think where we are going, and 
to lay down a direct route to the goal. 

Planning a lesson is much like planning a meal, or like the 
physician's writing a prescription for his patient; we must 
keep topmost in our minds those for whom we are planning. 
Plans must vary because children vary. We cannot plan 
our lessons intelligently until we know how nature has 
planned the children. Better to write up the "plan" of the 
one child whom you find it difficult to bring within the 

* Joseph Landon, Principles and Practice of Teaching. 

190 



PLANNING THE LESSON 191 

circle of your influence, to try to see his little life from his 
viewpoint, to find what forces you can bring to bear on him 
to reform and sweeten his behavior, than to work out a 
thousand "logical" arrangements of dead subject matter 
for " the child." The cook must know well the tastes of the 
family she serves, and not have her mind centered too 
strongly on the many mechanical devices of the kitchen.* 
What the lesson plan should include. — The essentials of a 
good lesson plan are listed below. 

1. Purpose. Make clear to yourself what you are actually 
trying to do in giving the lesson. Further, consider the 
pupil's purpose, present a problem that will appeal to him, 
an aim that he will care to achieve, a motive that will move 
him. 

2. Subject matter. Hold fast to the fundamental facts 
and omit all others. Arrange the essentials as clearly and 
simply as possible. 

3. Method. Outline what you propose to do, step after 
step. 

4. Special devices. Provide apt illustrations and well- 
framed questions to apply to knotty problems, and indi- 
cate the use of outlines or summaries at strategic points. 
Make note of the books, models, apparatus, etc., to be 
used.f 

The brief plan. — How much of this should be written out 
in actual practice, each may determine for himself. Some 

* In many practice schools the mechanics of lesson planning is 
pushed to an extreme. One is tempted to assume the attitude of the 
stolid traveler who remarked as he critically surveyed Niagara Falls, 
"Very fine, but a trifle overdone!" 

f When planning a lesson, it is well to array your class before you in 
imagination, as the successful orator so often composes for an imag- 
inary audience. If there is anything difficult to be done, such as the 
working of apparatus, practice it in private first. 



IQ2 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

can undoubtedly teach well without writing anything. But 
if one expects to repeat, or even review the lesson, it is wise 
to make note of such things as cannot readily be recovered, a 
happy illustration, the location of material, an unusually 
successful method, and the like. 

The following outline furnishes a suggestion of what may 
appear in a nature-study lesson. But even this could be 
much shortened. The outline shows the skeleton of an In- 
formation Lesson. 

A STUDY OF COAL 

How It Got into the Ground, and How We Get It Out 

Purpose. Information for the sake of appreciation and thought 
later on. 

Materials. Encyclopedia, post cards, and projector. Specimens 
of peat, coal, fossils, etc., from school museum. 

Assignment. Ask pupils to talk with parents, look at coal, read 
whatever they can find, and bring pictures if possible. 

i. Question children on what they have found. Has anyone been 
in a coal mine? Etc. 

2. Why is coal called " buried sunshine"? Whence the heat and 
light we get from this black "stone"? Is it stone? 

3. Tell of ancient forests of great ferns and trees, fallen and covered 
by mud. Like swamp. (Refer to encyclopedia.) Peat bogs. Speci- 
men of peat. Its use as fuel. 

4. Great pressure for centuries. (Blackboard drawing to show 
strata.) Sample of soft coal. Locomotive smoke. Discussion. 

5. Final change: hard, or stone coal. What are stones made of? 
Coal made of what? "Dusky diamonds." Coal, diamond, and lead 
in pencil all made of carbon. 

6. Pupils explain fossils found in coal. Examine specimens. 

7. Story of mines and mining. Location of the great coal fields. 
Follow order of pictures projected. Show children's pictures. 

8. Prepare for next lesson: appreciation. Uses of coal. Suppose 
coal all gone; what then? 



PLANNING THE LESSON 193 

The detailed plan. — Occasionally, to achieve some special 
purpose, it is well to place a detailed lesson plan on paper. 
Such a procedure is wise for self-criticism, and still more 
valuable when the plan is to be presented to another in 
order to instruct him, or to secure his criticism. But those 
who criticize such plans should remember that there is wide 
room for individual variation. The conscientious young 
teacher, like the bashful boy in the parlor, often feels that 
there is but one correct line of conduct, that he is very 
likely to miss it, and that in every other direction lies re- 
proach. His dominant emotions are self -consciousness and 
fear, with their accompanying inhibitions. He ought 
rather to feel like the boy on the ice pond, that there are 
many courses open, — only keep clear of the danger points. 
Epimetheus should teach us, as well as Prometheus; if 
the candidate is encouraged to retrospect, to reflect upon 
the actual result of his lesson and report upon it, perhaps 
in writing, his imagination will work at a livelier pace over 
his next effort. 

Following is an example of a detailed plan which also 
illustrates the traditional practice of using one column for 
"matter" and a parallel one for "method." Note the 
frequent use of the blackboard. This is an example of 
the Lesson for Thought. . 

HOW CAUSE A BALL TO CURVE? 

Teacher's object. To show the effect of resistance of air on a ball 
that spins as it moves along. 

Pupils' object. To learn the science of curving a baseball or tennis 
ball. 

Materials. Hollow rubber ball; pan of water. Also, if possible, 
baseball, tennis ball, and racquet; rifle bullets, spherical and elon- 
gated; rifle. 

Science and Art of Teaching. — 13 



194 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 
Matter Method 



i. How many have observed 
balls curving? What advantage 
has a player who can control 
curves? In baseball? In tennis? 

2. You are on the outer edge 
of the sidewalk and meet a 
crowd. Pressure on one side, no 
resistance on the other. Result? 

Suppose equal crowd each side 
of you; then what? 

3. If you turned clockwise as 
you moved through crowd, what 
effect? 

4. Similar, when ball moves 
through compact crowd of drops 
of water. One side bumps into 
drops as it rolls forward, while 
the other constantly yields. 

5. Air also is a compact crowd 
of tiny particles. One side of 
spinning ball meets resistance 
while the other gives way. 

6. Statement of law of curving 
as related to spin. 

"A ball moving through the 
air curves to the side toward 
which its front is spinning." 

7. Pitcher starts spin by roll- 
ing ball off his fingers. Difficulty 
of throwing a "drop." 

8. Tennis ball is curved by 
sliding racquet as it strikes ball. 

" Slide your racquet 'just the 
other way ' from where you want 
the ball to go." 

9. Application of principle. 



Arouse interest. Story of pro- 
fessor who declared curves im- 
possible. Pitcher throws one. 
Professor: "It is impossible — 
but you have done it!" 

Quick blackboard drawings, 
using symbols for people. 



See that "clockwise" is under- 
stood. Drawing to show that 
while one shoulder is opposed 
to crowd, the other yields some- 
what. 

Spin a floating ball into a pan 
of water. Observe its curving 
path. Pupils try it. Why is 
this? Diagram on board. Try 
ball spinning the other way, 
and with no spin. 

Further and varied diagrams. 

Statement drawn from pupils 
and placed on board. 



Have boys demonstrate. Dia- 
gram. Refer to mechanical 
pitcher once substituted for living 
one; loss of interest. 

Demonstration. Draw out 
rule for sliding stroke. Discuss 
"cuts," sideward and downward 
curves. 

What part of diagrams would 



PLANNING THE LESSON 195 

Matter Method 

Could we curve balls if there be removed? Discussion. Ex- 
were no air? plain the professor's error. 

Spherical rifle balls shoot less Show or draw bullets, 

accurately than the elongated 
type. Why? 

Grooves in the rifle barrel cause Show rifle or make drawing, 
the bullet to spin round its long Diagram to show why elongated 
axis. Does such spin cause the bullet does not curve. Discus- 
bullet to curve? Explain. sion. 

The lesson for appreciation. — A plan has now been given 
for an information lesson, and one for a lesson for thought. 
Following are brief, private-property notes of a lesson de- 
signed to arouse appreciation of a moral principle. 

WHY TELL THE TRUTH? 

i. Get children's reasons: to please parent or teacher, etc. 

2. Parents want it to please fancy, as roses are planted in the yard? 
Wrong because good books forbid, or do good books forbid because 
wrong? 

Best for us to tell truth. Why? Get children's reasons. 

3. Personal, egoistic reason for truthtelling. Tell (or have told) the 
story of the boy who cried "Wolf!" Experience of some who have 
lied (including my own). Get children's comments and summarize. 

4. Social, altruistic reason. Fable of clocks that told different time 
throughout city — all business disordered. Liars like wicked clocks. 
Suppose everybody lied— no special privilege permitted. 

Worst punishment of liar: having no one to lie to. Ostracism. 
Robinson Crusoe. Value of kindred, friends, society, all trustworthy. 

5. Summary. 

Drilling for skill. — Two specimens of the drill lesson ap- 
pear below. The first is taken from White,* who quotes 

* Emerson E. White, Art of Teaching, pp. 82, 83. American Book 
Cjmpany, publishers. Used by permission. 



196 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

from "a visitor to a primary school in one of our large 
cities," an account of a lesson actually given — an instruc- 
tive example of how not to do it! 

A FAULTY DRILL LESSON 

The pupil at the head of the class rose and said: 7; 6 and 1 are 7; 
1 and 6 are 7, and this was repeated by sixty pupils in turn, each rising. 
The drill proceeded: 

Head Pupil: 7; 5 and 2 are 7; 2 and 5 are 7 — repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 754 and 3 are 7; 3 and 4 are 7— repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 7; one 6 in 7 and 1 over — repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 7; one 5 in 7 and 2 over— repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 7; one 4 in 7 and 3 over — repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 7; two 3's in 7 and one over — repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 7; three 2's in 7 and 1 over — repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 7; seven i's in 7 — repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 7 is 7 times 1 — repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 7 is 3 times 2 plus 1 — repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 7 is twice 3 plus 1 — repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 7 is once 4 plus 3 — repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 7 is once 5 plus 2 — repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 7 is once 6 plus 1 — repeated in turn by all. 
Head Pupil: 7 is once 7 — repeated in turn by all. 
And the number seven was exhausted! 

"It is evident," says Dr. White, "that the result of this 
exercise would have been about the same if all the pupils in 
the class, except the head one, had been parrots with the 
gift of imitating sounds! No pupil, except the one at the 
head, was obliged to see a number relation vocally ex- 
pressed. The drill, if desirable, could have been effectively 
conducted in one third of the time, and every pupil obliged 
to see each number relation." 

The second example is from Strayer.* 

* George Strayer, Brief Course in the Teaching Process. Used by 
permission of The Macmillan Company, publishers. 



PLANNING THE LESSON 197 

The work indicated here can be done in one period. The 
plan is given as an illustration of the principles involved in 
good drill work. It is especially necessary, in planning for 
lessons of this type, to be ready to vary the exercises in order 
to maintain the interest and attention of the class. Repeti- 
tion with attention is what counts for habit formation. The 
children have been playing a game in which the score se- 
cured by throwing a bean bag in squares, numbered from 
one to ten, has been multiplied by two and later by three. 
The class has been divided into sides, and the competition 
has been keen. They want to make larger scores, and, 
therefore, have a compelling motive for studying the next 
table. 

A PLAN FOR A DRILL LESSON 

Teacher's aim: To teach multiplication by four. If we are to make 
larger scores, what table must we learn next? How many think they 
can learn half of the table of fours to-day? If you learn it, we will 
play our game for ten minutes. 

Pupil's aim: To learn the multiplication table of fours. 

Method 

Teacher writes the table on the blackboard, 
as indicated under subject matter. 

How many are sure they know the first two? 
Look at me and answer as I ask the results. 
Don't answer unless you are sure. 

Now let us take the first three. Proceed as 
before. 

I'll erase the first three. Look at them care- 
fully. Now write them on your tablets. 

4X4= 4X2= 4X6= 

Do not write the answers unless you are sure 
you are right. 

Let four or five children read their answers. 



ibject ] 


Matter 


4X4 


= 16 


4 X 2 


= 8 


4X6 


= 24 


4X3 


= 12 


4X 5 


= 20 



198 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 
Subject Matter Method 

Margaret may ask for answers. She drills on 
the first three combinations. 

The other two are easy to remember, — four 
times three we know; it is the same as three 
times four, and four times five are twenty we can 
all remember. Look carefully; I am going to 
erase them. 

Drill by teacher on last two combinations. 

All combinations put on board again and read 
and written by children. 

Robert tries to discover whether there is any girl 
who has forgotten any part of the table. 

Katherine tries to catch the boys. 

All write at the dictation of the teacher, supply- 
ing the products. 

The game is then played. When anyone makes 
a mistake in recording his score on the blackboard, 
his side is penalized the amount of his mistake. 

Possibly all the plans the experienced teacher needs for 
the lesson outlined above are a few notes concerning the 
variations to be introduced from time to time in the drill. 
She must plan, however, to put zest into the lessons by 
means of the variety which she introduces, and she must, if 
she is to get the best work, provide some motive which will 
make the drill work seem worth while to the children. 

Plans for reviewing history. — The following suggestions 
are offered for the review of a chapter or epoch in history 
with an upper grammar or high-school class. 

i . Let each write up one or more of the leading events as 
if he were reporting for a daily paper. Teacher may make 
assignments, "sending" reporters to various localities to 
collect news. Class discussion. 

2. Write an article on the chapter, taking as an ideal a 



PLANNING THE LESSON 199 

magazine article. State and defend your views on the 
larger questions involved. Class discussion. 

3. Find answers to a list of questions prepared by the 
teacher. 

4. Write " extracts" from the diary of your hero or 
heroine of this time, in such a way as to connect the chief 
events and show his (or her) view of them. Class criticism. 

5. Let each personify a character, telling of his life and 
deeds, but keep his name unknown to the class as long as 
possible. Class may criticize, and report on their recogni- 
tion of the character. 

6. Let each prepare five (or more) questions, — none 
dealing with petty details, placing one only on a slip. Con- 
test to win slips by giving answers satisfactory to teacher. 

7. Give complete history of assigned topics of this chap- 
ter, as slavery or a political party, tracing back through all 
previous chapters covered. 

8. Show relation of topics of this chapter to those now 
discussed in daily papers. 

9. Write (if matter is pretty well mastered), "a piece of 
possible history," dealing with critical points, and showing 
how differently all might have turned out if — . 



SAMPLE EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. NORTH AMERICA. GRADE EIGHT 

i. (a) State approximately the parallels and meridians that bound 
North America, (b) What political divisions are crossed by the 
Tropic of Cancer? 

2. Draw from memory an outline map of -this continent, and name 
the chief indentations. 

3. Name the principal drainage areas and the largest river of each. 

4. Contrast the climate and products of Alaska and Mexico. 

5. Name important minerals and the regions where each is found. 



200 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

6. What are the chief races found here? Tell why you think these 
races are distributed as they are, and not otherwise. 

7. Which would be better, to push the wheat belt of Canada farther 
north by breeding more resistive wheat, or to discover a new gold 
field like the Klondike? Why? 

8. State some advantages resulting from the opening of the Pan- 
ama Canal. 

9. Where are the great agricultural regions? Manufacturing 
regions? 

10. Give the chief Atlantic and the chief Pacific seaports, and men- 
tion important products that pass through each. 

FAULTY EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. NORTH AMERICA. GRADE EIGHT 

i. Name all the capes and bays along the Atlantic coast. 

2. How far does the Rio Grande bound the United States? 

3. What is Mexico noted for? 

4. What and where is the highest peak in North America? 

5. Give the population of Halifax; Havana; St. Louis; Sitka. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. Criticize the " faulty examination questions" given 
above. 

2. State the chief faults of the drill lesson quoted from 
White (p. 196). Tell how you would drill on the number 
seven. 

3. You are teaching in New York: write a lesson plan 
on some topic connected with the city, as its geography or 
history. Rewrite the plan from the standpoint of a teacher 
in Seattle, Washington. 

4. Write the plan of a lesson on " Color" (any aspect of 
the general subject), to be taught to feeble-minded children. 

Rewrite the plan for normal pupils. 

Note. — State how much knowledge you assume these 
classes to have. Remember that the first thing to do with 
most feeble-minded children is to wake up their senses and 
secure some kind of motor response, 



PLANNING THE LESSON 201 

5. When a lesson has been taught, how can you tell 
whether or not it was successful? 

6. Would it be wise to have pupils (say in the seventh 
grade) write out a "Plan for Studying"? Give reasons. 

7. Write at least one plan for each kind of lesson, in- 
formation, thought, etc. 

8. As the carpenter works from a blue print, so must the 
teacher work from a plan. Criticize this argument. 

9. How long should a cook put on paper a detailed plan 
of each meal she prepared? Compare with teaching. 

REFERENCES 

Charters, W. W., Methods of Teaching, Ch. XXV. 
Landon, Joseph, Principles and Practice of Teaching, Ch. IV. 
Strayer, George Drayton, Brief Course in the Teaching Proc- 
ess, Ch. XVI. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

TEACHING SELF-EDUCATION 

" Teaching pupils how to study — or better, how to educate them- 
selves — is obviously as important as teaching them to know certain 
facts and to do certain things. The willingness and ability to study 
efficiently— to educate oneself well— involves (i) having purposes or 
aims, (2) putting questions to oneself, (3) bringing to bear upon any 
problem whatever relevant facts one knows, (4) organizing these 
facts according to their bearings upon the problem, (5) searching for 
more in the writings of men competent to inform one about the 
problem in question, (6) judging the merits of the suggestions thus re- 
ceived, (7) observing and experimenting in first-hand contact with 
facts, (8) economizing time and energy in the triple task of forming 
habits, acquiring skill, and memorizing what is permanently needed, 
(9) using the knowledge or skill or interest when it is gained, and 
cherishing ideals of open-mindedness, fairness, accuracy, thorough- 
ness, and caution."* 

'Exercise. — Write out your present ideas on the topic, 
"How to Assign a Lesson." 

The greatest thing you will ever teach your pupils is 
that they can get along without you ! The test of the swim- 
ming pool is the test everywhere; he is the best master who 
can teach his pupils to strike out alone. He was a wise 
Frenchman who insisted that his object was to make him- 
self as useless as possible to his pupils. 

Books and education. — To the ordinary observer educa- 
tion is a kind of book business. So often do we resort to 



* Edward L. Thorndike, Education. Used by permission of the 
author. 

202 



TEACHING SELF-EDUCATION 203 

books for wisdom that we are in danger of mistaking the 
book for the wisdom. "It is written" has come to mean, 
"It is true"; and some are heedless enough to attach that 
meaning to the phrase, "It is printed." 

But we must not be slaves to the book. Education ex- 
isted long before books, and even yet it should always be- 
gin without them. It is enlightening for every teacher to 
ponder what she would do if fire or flood should destroy all 
books, or at least all her pupils' books, — how she would 
contrive to continue their education by some other means 
than the assignment and recitation of lessons. 

The book as a substitute for the teacher. — When we ex- 
plore a new and somewhat dangerous country, a guide is 
valuable and oftentimes indispensable. But independence 
grows of experience, and a guide book at length takes the 
place of the living leader. Having acquired skill in under- 
standing the book, we can travel safely alone. 

Education is the exploring of a country that is new to the 
young adventurer. His guide, on whom he is at first utterly 
dependent, is the teacher. But the teacher's daily contact 
with each child is very limited; to extend her presence, to 
multiply her influence, to afford aid that may be drawn 
upon in any time of need, she provides a guide book in the 
form of a textbook. It would be altogether desirable if 
every able teacher could prepare her own textbook, a per- 
sonal "first aid" that would tell what to do till the teacher 
comes. As it is, she is apt to bow meekly before the tradi- 
tional authority of whatever appears in print. It is all 
too easy for her to believe that the education she is trying 
to give the children is shut up in the book, and must be 
wormed out of it in some way. But the art is in the artist, 
not in his brushes and pigments. 



204 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

The first studying should be done with the teacher. — 

The guide book should be consulted in the presence of the 
guide, until it can be correctly interpreted in his absence. 
When the first grade child learns to read, he gets along 
most happily for some time without the book. When at 
length the print is placed in his hands, he and the teacher 
should work together over the lessons, until he shows that 
he is ready to go on alone. 

Nor should this study recitation, as it has been called, be 
confined to primary grades. The student who is learning 
a foreign language should learn the pronunciation of its 
declensions and conjugations, in large measure, from the 
lips of his teacher; and instead of being turned loose to puz- 
zle out his own translations and incidentally fall into bad 
habits, he should first learn "the tricks of the trade " by 
following a master through all the mental operations re- 
quired to make strange-looking words and sentences ac- 
tually mean something in good English. 

Frequently, before the learner can appreciate or under- 
stand the book, he must be put through a course of apper- 
ceptive development; * that is, he must have some actual 
first-hand experiences before he can read meaning into the 
words that refer to such experiences. The student who has 
received a stunning blow from the opening definitions and 
discussions of some old-fashioned text in physics, grammar, 
geometry, or psychology, will know exactly what is here 
referred to. The first duty of a teacher who is starting such 
a class is not to assign a book lesson, but to talk to and with 
his students in a cordial, informal way, until they under- 
stand, however crudely, the general situation and purpose; 

* See, in Chapter VII, " Poverty of the pupil's mind," and in Chap- 
ter VIII, "Apperception in teaching." 



TEACHING SELF-EDUCATION 205 

to give experiments and other experience if need be, — and 
need there usually is, — and then to read and study with 
them some portion of the textbook, until he finds that they 
can master it, for the most part, alone. 

The assignment of lessons. — Perhaps the most necessary 
point to keep in mind here is that the lesson must be adapted 
to the pupil at his stage of advancement. Of course the 
teacher cannot act intelligently, unless she knows both the 
lesson and the learner. Next, the length of the lesson must 
be determined carefully in its relation to the ability of the 
pupil, and the time he can reasonably be expected to devote 
to it. This is of especial importance in schools conducted 
on the departmental plan, for each teacher must recall 
constantly that several other teachers also are assigning 
lessons for her pupils. There is danger that each will at- 
tempt to magnify his office. A happy method of adjustment 
is the determination, in faculty meeting, of the amount of 
time each teacher may claim. 

One of the most fatal methods of lesson assignment 
consists in determining, at the beginning of a term or a year, 
how many pages of text shall be completed in this period, 
and then dividing the number of pages by the number of 
recitations. Not only are pages of unequal value, but the 
whole process is likely to result in dawdling or forcing. The 
same danger threatens, when a number of differing classes 
are compelled to advance at the same pace. Each class, 
provided it does faithful work, is the measure of what it can do. 

One of the best means of insuring the mastery of the 
lesson is to clear up its precise purpose. Frequently the 
pupil fails because he does not know just what is expected of 
him. The dominant purpose of the task can often be 
indicated by a question or a series of questions, or a brief 



206 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

outline for the direction of study may be given, or signif- 
icant passages in the text may be marked. In addition, 
all obscure language, or unusual difficulty of meaning should 
be made plain in advance. The fundamental excellence of all 
good teaching is clearness. 

Teaching pupils to study. — The only one who knows 
thoroughly the science of studying is the expert psycholo- 
gist. To attempt to teach his intricate science to children 
is folly. But we can practice the art of study with our 
pupils, thus heading off bad habits and setting up good ones. 
And the more the children mature, the more we can teach 
them of mental self-management. 

The most general method of attack, one which it is safe 
to encourage in dealing with any ordinary lesson, consists 
of three stages, (i) getting a comprehensive first view, (2) 
working thoroughly through the minor steps that make 
up the body of the task, and (3) looking back over the 
lesson as a whole to make sure that all parts are correctly 
related. 

(1) The pupil may well be encouraged to think of the 
lesson as a range of territory to be explored; it is well to see 
it as a whole, from some vantage point, first of all. If he is 
to read a chapter or a section, he should turn to the table 
of contents and see where and how this assignment stands 
with reference to other portions of the book, — what has led 
up to it, what follows. Next, he may read rapidly over the 
whole assignment, even if the meaning is not yet perfectly 
clear at some points. Having taken such an airship view, 
he will know where the new territory abuts on old, familiar 
ground, and so be less likely to get lost in details when he 
begins the actual work of exploration. 

(2) The second part of the process consists in working 



TEACHING SELF-EDUCATION 207 

over the smaller units, making each topic, paragraph, and 
sentence deliver its meaning. If a real classic is being 
studied, it pays to work with dictionary and reference book 
at elbow. This searching out of bypaths, beating of bushes, 
and turning over of stones may continue as far as time and 
purpose warrant. 

(3) Finally, when one has gained the hilltop of mastery, 
he should turn and make a careful review of the ground 
covered, fixing in mind irremovably the chief landmarks. 
A brief outline or analysis will help to accomplish this. 

The habits we try to train into pupils will depend on the 
kind of lesson. The importance of pointing out the precise 
purpose of the lesson at the time of its assignment has been 
emphasized above. The pupil need not be very old, before 
he can understand whether he is to collect facts ("infor- 
mation"), or work out a problem ("thought"), or master 
some process ("skill"), or form an estimate of something 
("appreciation"). 

Training for the information lesson demands that the 
pupil be taught (1) how to find and collect information, use 
reference books, source books, etc. ; (2) how to organize the 
material collected; (3) how to commit it to memory most 
easily, or place it on file for future use. * 

The art of thinking requires that pupils habitually (1) 
look for what is given to think from; (2) consider what is 
demanded, what they are to think their way to; (3) search 
for a way from the one to the other. f 

The precepts most necessary in working for appreciation 

* See Ch. VII, "Collecting Mental Material"; Ch. IX, "Remem- 
bering and Imagining"; and "The Lesson for Information," as 
treated in Ch. XIV. 

f See Ch. X, "Thinking"; and "The Lesson for Thought," as 
treated in Ch. XIV. 



2o8 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

and for skill have already been presented.* The pupil 
must catch the correct procedure, for the most part, by 
working with his teacher and imitating her practice. 

It is evident from all this that we must regard our pupils 
as apprentices in the art of learning, and we must spend 
many a period in practical study with them, instead of 
merely hearing lessons. Such periods are not wasted; they 
are like the time the mechanic spends in sharpening his tools. 

Conditions for successful study. — There are certain phys- 
ical and mental conditions for study which every teacher 
aims to secure in her schoolroom, and which every learner, 
as soon as he is capable of independent work at home or in 
his study, should be exhorted to secure for himself. It is 
well, on entering either schoolroom or study, to let the words 
"heat, light, air," flit through one's mind habitually, and 
to proceed first of all to the regulation of these primitive 
necessities, — the first in accordance with a thermometer. 

Mentally, one should be (i) fresh, (2) comfortable, (3) 
composed, (4) attentive. (1) The fagged-out student 
would often succeed better by loafing or dozing through half 
his study hour, in order to spend the remainder in quickened 
accomplishment. It pays the chopper to keep his ax sharp. 

(2) It is evident that one must be free from all distracting 
discomforts, such as may arise from too recent eating, or 
tight clothing, or improper furniture, or physical ailment. 

(3) We have learned that deep thinking and turbulent feel- 
ing tend to crowd each other out; it is well if one does not 
even feel too feverish an interest in the lesson. If fear, 
worry, or any other emotion is present, it must be calmly 
but decisively abandoned to death. (4) The best method 

* See Chs. XI and XIII; also "The Lesson for Appreciation," and 
"The Lesson for Skill," as treated in Ch. XIV. 



TEACHING SELF-EDUCATION 209 

of insuring the desirable mental attitude is to proceed 
promptly, quietly, and steadfastly about the business in 
hand. The engine runs better as it warms up. 

This last condition, that of attention, is the one for which 
all the others exist. Concentration is the student's word of 
magic; his mind should thrill with the subject before him, 
and with nothing else. He must learn to work concentrat- 
edly amidst distracting surroundings, as the typist or teleg- 
rapher works in a room where many other machines are 
going; as the business man reads his letter or carries on a 
personal conversation in a crowd, if necessary. Conditions 
should be made as favorable as possible, in order to econo- 
mize nerve energy, but the pupil must learn to work and 
win, whatever the distractions about him. The surest 
guaranty of such learning is a heart set on victory. He who 
makes up his mind to "get there or die " is likely to live to 
get there. 

Books other than the textbook. — From the time when the 
pupil has learned to read, he should be encouraged to make 
the acquaintance of books other than those forced upon him. 
This practice should begin with the juvenile lore borrowed 
from the little library of his grade or room, should expand 
into an acquaintance with the school library, spread to the 
library of his town, and finally embrace the largest and 
choicest collections of books to which he is fortunate enough 
to have access. Those schools are to be congratulated 
whose town library will cooperate with them, set apart 
books for their use, aid in guiding the student's reading, 
teach him the use of indexes, and in general make itself as 
educationally influential with the younger generation as 
with the older. 

As the student at length finds his way into a vocation, he 

Science and Art of Teaching. — 14 



2io THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

should be put into touch with all the chief sources of infor- 
mation concerning his chosen field, including government 
departments, publishers, and the leading periodicals. 

Student helps.— One's ability for practical accomplish- 
ment depends largely on taking advantage of labor-saving 
contrivances and mechanical aids. The average student 
keeps many notes on vagrant slips of paper, or buys a bound 
book for each subject, instead of procuring a single loose- 
leaf book which, with suitable markers, would serve for all 
classes and permit him to re-arrange and permanently file 
his notes as he pleased. Further, he often attempts to tran- 
scribe all details, or else lets the whole matter go by the 
board and records nothing. The medium method of catch- 
ing important points only is best. In collecting notes for an 
essay, it is a good plan to use a small pad or loose-leaf book, 
placing a single note only on each leaflet. The leaves can 
then be quickly arranged according to the heads of the out- 
line. The use of library cards in the preparation of bib- 
liographies and for recording the names of books to be pur- 
chased later; of a simple and cheap alphabetical file for 
stowing clippings, catalogues and other matter liable to 
misplacement or loss; even such simple devices as clips and 
binders and program calendars, and the marking of one's 
books to insure quick reviews of important passages, will 
all make a difference in the practical efficiency of one who 
is learning to plan and execute his work independently. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

i. Should pupils be encouraged to criticize their text- 
books? Why? Should they be allowed to criticize their 
teachers? Their teachers' opinions? 

2. Have you ever had lessons too long, too difficult, or 
too trifling? Describe your feelings in each case. 



TEACHING SELF-EDUCATION 211 

3. Do you know of any instances in which classes have 
been " rushed" to complete work in a set time? What 
were the results, both immediate and remote? 

4. The best teachers are usually said by their pupils to 
be "good at explaining things." Why is this? 

5. Have you thoughtfully adopted what you regard as 
the best plan of note taking? 

6. Have you decided which periodicals will be best for 
you to subscribe for as teachers? How can you determine 
this? 

7. List the advantages and disadvantages of trying to 
master a subject without a teacher. 

8. Resolved: that the first study of any foreign language 
should be carried on with an interlinear translation. De- 
bate this. , 

9. Have you a thermometer in your study? Do you keep 
a window or other efficient ventilator open? What candle 
power of light have you? 

10. Did you progress most satisfactorily when your 
teacher confined the work almost wholly to a single book, 
or when you had no single book to rely on, but were referred 
to many sources of information? What practice do you 
advocate, for fairly mature pupils? 

REFERENCES 

Bagley, William Chandler, Classroom Management, Ch. XIII. 
Earhart, Lida B., Teaching Children to Study. 
Hinsdale, B. A., The Art of Study. 
McMurry, F. M., How to Study. 

Strayer, George Drayton, Brief Course in the Teaching Process, 
Ch. VIII. 



CHAPTER XIX 

PEDAGOGICAL MEASUREMENTS 

"It is the custom to measure intellectual ability and achievement, 
as manifested in school studies, by marks on an arbitrary scale; for 
instance, from o to ioo or from o to 10. Suppose now that one boy in 
Latin is scored 60 and another 90. Does this mean, as it would in 
ordinary arithmetic, that the second boy has one and one half times 
as much ability or has done one and one half times as well? . . . The 
same difference in ability may, in fact, be denoted by the step from 
60 to 90 by one teacher, by the step from 40 to 95 by another, by the 
step of from 75 to 92 by another, and even by still another by the step 
from 90 to 96. Obviously school marks are quite arbitrary, and their 
use at their face value as measures is entirely unjustifiable. A 90 boy 
may be four times or three times or six fifths as able as an 80 boy." * 

Exercise. — How can we measure the ability of a sixth- 
grade boy in arithmetic? If we give him an examination, 
how many questions are necessary to constitute a fair test? 
What shall be the percentage value of each question? 
Would different teachers be likely to agree if they evaluated 
the answers independently? Would the average mark of a 
hundred teachers be more or less valuable than any single 
mark? Why? If a second boy made twice as high a mark, 
would it be certain that he knew twice as much about 
arithmetic? 

Measurement as a means to progress. — Without meas- 
urement, it would be hard to build either barns or brains. In 
dealing with the objective, the environmental, we measure 

* Edward L. Thorndike, Mental and Social Measurements. Used 
by permission of the author, 



PEDAGOGICAL MEASUREMENTS 213 

everything; in dealing with the subjective, the mental, it 
was long thought impossible to measure anything. But 
the whole psychological world has for years been agonizing 
itself to measure mind, and with some success. The time 
may even come when it will be possible to measure off a 
certain amount of education and pay for it by the piece ! 

We have seen (in Chapter II) that sciences are either 
exact or approximate. An exact science is always a science 
that does much measuring. Mathematics, physics, astron- 
omy, and chemistry are good examples of this. Compass 
and ruler, the balance, the stopwatch, and other means of 
measuring are prominent in all that these sciences do. 
Can education become an exact science? It can if it can 
measure. 

Whenever a parent wishes to know what he may expect 
from the schooling of his child; when we want to find out 
how much talent a pupil has, and for what; when we would 
like to know which of two methods is better, or how much 
faster pupils would learn if they could have good air to 
breathe instead of bad, then we wish that education could 
measure, and measure "to a T." 

What must the teacher measure? — Many educational 
measurements fall outside the schoolroom, some of them to 
the superintendent. Such are the measurement of all the 
money the school district can put into its schools, the money 
and effort that go into each department, and the comparison 
of cities, schools, classes, teachers, textbooks. As teachers 
we want to measure methods, so we shall not have to fall 
back on vague opinions, such as "I believe," or "It seems 
to me." We should help the time to come when we shall 
know which method to use. So we may wish to know the 
standing of this year's grade as compared with last year's, 



214 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

whether boys or girls learn faster, and the like. The ordi- 
nary " marks" and "grades" no teacher ever escapes, — 
and they involve measurement. Let us see just what it 
means to measure. 

The nature of measurement. — Measurement is accurate 
comparison — so accurate that it requires numbers to ex- 
press it exactly. ' ' The father is taller than his son, ' ' involves 
a loose and inexact comparison; but "The father is one and 
a half times as tall as his son," is a real measurement, in 
which the son is used as a unit. But the father could be 
used as a unit; we could say, "The son is two thirds as tall 
as his father." 

Processes as well as things can be compared, — the motion 
of a cannon ball with that of a horse, or the turning of our 
watch hands with the apparent movement of the sun, or 
my memory with your memory. We can measure the speed 
of a boat by that of a horse, or a bicycle, or the falling of the 
sand in an hourglass, or a flying bird. 

Essentials of good measurement. — The essentials of good 
measurement are three : 

(i) We must know just what it is we are measuring. If 
we are asked to measure "a stream of water," shall we 
measure its width, or length, or speed of flowing, or the area 
of a cross section at some point, or its purity, or the energy 
it expends on a mill wheel? One of these measures cannot 
take the place of another. When we measure "memory," 
is it best represented by (i) the number of repetitions neces- 
sary in committing, or (2) the length of time the impressions 
last, or (3) the total amount that can be reproduced at the 
end of a given time? Also, are we to measure memory for 
music, for words, for tastes, for old emotional experiences, 
for thoughts, or for what? If we are to say that one stream 



PEDAGOGICAL MEASUREMENTS 215 

is twice as large as another, or that one man's memory is 
twice as good as another's, we must define exactly what 
we mean. 

It often becomes necessary to define the conditions under 
which a quantity is measured. If one measures his memory 
first under ordinary conditions, and then again after a 
sleepless night, he obtains two very different results. Scien- 
tists generally have learned to specify the conditions of their 
measurements, such as the altitude at which a barometer 
reading is taken; but teachers often forget this precaution. 

A certain college student made 53 per cent in one test in 
German and 100 per cent in the following one, a month later. 
He was ill when the first test was given, but determined not 
to miss the exercise. It would be a gross wrong to insist on 
examining a student who was not "in condition." * One 
might as well measure a stream after a drought. So any 
teacher who will carefully call back the experiences of her 
childhood, with its short-lived and treacherous memory for 
school subjects, should find it easy to explain how the 



* "A bit of personal experience illustrates the difficulty of eliminat- 
ing irregular test conditions, and the futility of absolutely following 
any system of scoring. On one of my out-patient days, I had exam- 
ined eight patients, one after the other. I had no luncheon and was 
fatigued physically and mentally. At 5 o'clock a social worker in- 
sisted that I examine, as I had agreed to do, her 15-year-old patient. 
I pleaded weariness and disinclination, but finally decided to give the 
Binet tests. The patient had waited hours for her examination and 
was tired and unhappy. After much effort she utterly failed to achieve 
the 10- or 1 i-year Binet tests. I declined to give an opinion, but made 
another appointment for the next morning, when, after the patient 
had been put at ease and got acquainted, she readily tested up to her 
full age. The result the night before was really a record of my own 
mental state." 

Walter E. Fernald, " The Diagnosis of the Higher Grades of Men- 
tal Defect," American Journal of Insanity, Vol. LXX, No. 3, Jan., 
1914. Used by permission of the Johns Hopkins Press, 



216 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

teacher in the grade below "could ever have passed," last 
June, the very pupils who, here in September, "can't even 
do what they are supposed to have learned last year!" 

It is essential, then, to know (a) just what it is we are 
measuring, and (b) the conditions under which it is meas- 
ured, in so far as they affect the result. We must not 
measure the speed of the wind to-day and assume that the 
result holds good for yesterday. Nor can we measure a 
child's eyesight or moral conduct or attainment in arith- 
metic this year and be sure that the same measures will 
hold for next year. 

(2) We must have a reliable standard with which to measure. 
We measure cloth with a yardstick, butter with a pound 
weight, time by the movement of watch hands, knowledge 
by the examination question. If the yardstick is elastic, 
now long, now short, if the watch ticks off first a quick hour 
and then a slow one, if one examination question is harder 
than another but each counts ten per cent, then there is as 
much guesswork in the result as there is variation in the 
standard. 

(3) We must apply our standard with great care. If we are 
to measure cloth we must place the end of the yardstick 
where the cloth begins, leave no gaps unmeasured, and go 
on to the end of the cloth. If we are to measure a pupil's 
knowledge, we must begin where the knowledge begins, 
leave no gaps unmeasured, and go on to the limit of his 
knowledge. 

A practical problem in pedagogical measurement. — A boy 
has handed in an examination paper in arithmetic: (1) 
Precisely what are we trying to measure? (2) What is our 
standard of measurement? (3) How shall we apply this 
standard so as to measure accurately? 



PEDAGOGICAL MEASUREMENTS 217 

(1) Is this examination paper designed to measure the 
boy's ability in the whole subject of arithmetic, or in one 
topic, chapter, or even a single operation? Shall "effort" 
be considered? If the paper is legible, but not neat, shall it 
be marked down, that is, are we to include neatness in 
measuring arithmetical ability? Shall very good or very 
poor attendance during the month make any difference? 
If the work is unsatisfactory, say at the opening of the year, 
but the teacher can discern signs of promise; or if the stu- 
dent is likely to become discouraged over his low mark and 
continue to fail, shall the mark be raised? And are we mark- 
ing the paper in and for itself alone, or are we to make in- 
ferences from the paper as to the nature and ability of the 
boy who produced it, and mark him? 

Theoretically we should measure one simple thing, — let 
us say it is proficiency in this month's work in arithmetic. 
Marking the paper should be like reading off the position of 
the finger on a scale. If other matters must be considered 
they should be marked separately if possible. Thus one 
often finds on report cards a special column for " Neatness." 
Practically the mark is a means of communication between 
teacher and pupil or parent. From this standpoint the 
large question is, What does the message mean to the one 
who gets it? It would be wise to add a note of explanation 
to report cards, and it might be well, under certain cir- 
cumstances, to allow teachers to refrain from giving a mark. 

(2) What standard have we by which to measure the boy's 
proficiency? Shall each question be regarded as a unit, or 
each operation, — adding, subtracting, etc.? On a ruler 
each inch is equal to every other inch; but how can we know 
that one question or operation is just equal to every other? 
Practically, we do the best we can to make our questions of 



218 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

like value. Carefully graded questions, such as are found 
in the Courtis tests,* are an effort to establish a more re- 
liable standard. 

Further, we usually mark according to a scale running 
from zero to ioo. We should be able to represent this on 
paper by a line divided into ten equal parts, as follows: 



o 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 

This is correct if we mark that only which appears on the 
paper. But everyone knows how much easier it is to pass 
from zero to 10, or from 40 to 50, or from 70 to 80, than 
is to climb from 90 to 100. If then the mark includes an 
estimate of effort, each succeeding per cent will be longer as 
we approach 100, and our scale will appear somewhat as 
below: 



o 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 98 100 

If two boys start with equal ability, but one works hard 
enough to win 100 while the other reaches 50, the first has 
worked much more than twice as hard as the second, and 
deserves much more than twice as much " credit." f 



* See the References at the close of the chapter. 

f "The student of telegraphy may have little trouble in 'sending 1 
ten or fifteen words a minute, but to increase his speed to the point 
where he can send twenty or thirty seems to take much more than 
double the time and effort required for the simpler achievement. The 
young teacher may quickly reach the point where her supervisor will 
grade her instruction and discipline as 'B,' but years of strenuous and 
persistent work may be necessary before the grade month after 
month is recorded as 'A plus."' (Colvin and Bagley, Human Be- 
havior, p. 177. Used by permission of The Macmillan Company, 
publishers.) 



PEDAGOGICAL MEASUREMENTS 219 

It appears that, if we are measuring effort, or rate of im- 
provement, a per cent is not a constant unit. 

Finally, we should consider whether the " 100" which we 
have fixed upon as the limit of perfection has been standard- 
ized by wide and careful use, and so is accepted in other 
schools; or whether it is merely our own idea, carried in our 
heads, and so subject to change. * Even good teachers 
sometimes permit each class to fix its own standard, grading 
a few of the best pupils "A," and distributing the others 
through the lower grades. The best pupil in each class, 
whatever his attainment, sets the standard for that class. 
This makes it easier to arrange the papers in order from best 
to poorest, which is all that is necessary to find rank within 
the class. Such a method is satisfactory if we wish merely to 
award a prize to the one of highest rank; but it fails to fur- 
nish a satisfactory standard by means of which to compare 
class with class or school with school. 

(3) How shall we apply our standard so as to measure 
accurately? If the boy can make zero in our examination 
and still know anything about the subject, we are not 
measuring his whole attainment ; a part of it lies below our 
zero. In other words, the examination is too hard. On the 
other hand, if he can reach our highest mark, say 100, with- 
out exhausting his power, again we fail to measure it all 
The situation is like that of weighing a 200-pound man on a 
100-pound scale. The examination is too easy. 

Further, there are probably great gaps in the boy's attain- 
ment which are left unmeasured. The ordinary examina- 
tion is not so much like measuring a line from end to end 



* Professor Josiah Royce of Harvard has humorously suggested that 
students of various grade be kept on hand as standards by which to 
measure our classes, as we keep our yardsticks to measure cloth! 



220 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

as it is like picking a few random samples from a crate of 
eggs to test the quality of the whole crate. Perfect thor- 
oughness and fairness would require that we open every 
egg. Perfect thoroughness and fairness in an examination 
would require the asking of every possible question. 

Suppose the boy has given an answer that is partly cor- 
rect, perhaps showing the right method but a wrong answer. 
How much is that worth? It is surely better than no an- 
swer, as an egg not strictly fresh is better than no egg. 
Besides, all the untested eggs and answers whose sample is 
found but partly good may themselves be thoroughly good.* 

What can we do? — We cannot yet measure the school- 
room attainment of our pupils with great accuracy. But 
we can at least try to keep clear as to (i) what we are meas- 
uring, (2) what our standard of measurement is, and (3) how 
we shall apply the standard. If our marks in any subject 
are to be influenced by neatness, spelling, effort, and the 
like, we should tell our pupils so frankly. Perhaps one might 
even fairly include class attendance, if the fact was under- 
stood by all. Of course, the more things we try to include 
under one mark, the less accurate that mark will be. 

Many praiseworthy efforts are being made to establish 
standards for us. Such are Hillegas's "Scale for merit in 
English composition," and Thorndike's a Graphometer." f 
Perhaps some day we can have phonograph records of ex- 
emplary reading, oral language, song, declamation, and 

* The practice of allowing no credit for an answer that is partly 
right, is unfair. It is like declaring that six inches is not a foot, and is 
therefore zero. We should conscientiously give credit for such virtue 
as the answer manifestly contains. 

f For both, see Edward L. Thorndike, Education, § 49. Those who 
read French will find Binet and Simon's Educational Ready Reckoner 
interesting. See Alfred Binet, Les idies modemes sur les en f ants, p. 27. 



PEDAGOGICAL MEASUREMENTS 221 

topical recitations for each grade, with standard papers in 
arithmetic, spelling, etc. Such standards, well worked out 
by a committee of psychologists and educators, and distrib- 
uted over the country, would be of great value. 

For measuring inborn ability (as contrasted with attain- 
ment, which results from training), we have the Binet tests, 
and others too numerous to mention. (See References at 
the end of the chapter.) 

The expected distribution of marks in a class. — If we 
collect a thousand men at random, the mathematician can 
tell us in advance about how many of the thousand will 
measure six feet in height, how many five feet eleven inches, 
and so on for all the heights there are. Similarly he can cal- 
culate the number of the general population, or of a large 
school, or a body of teachers, — who are likely to stand high 
in any trait, the number of mediocres, and the lows. This 
is of special interest to teachers, for it can be applied to 
examination marks in some classes. Thus we find Dear- 
born saying that if we divide the base fine of a theoretical 
curve into five equal parts in order to secure the same range 
of abilities, we should secure the following percentages in 
each grade in a normal distribution: * 

A B C D E 

Excellent Good Fair Poor Failure 

2% 23% 50% 23% 2% 

In a class of 100 pupils, then, we should expect to find about 
two A's, 23 B's, and so on. It is well for teachers to know 
this as a general guide in marking. It is well to know also 
that it cannot be applied safely to small classes or specially 
selected groups. 

* Walter Fenno Dearborn, School and University Grades, p. 17. 



222 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

At the opening of this chapter, it was said that education 
can become exact if it can measure. While it is difficult, 
as shown above, to make any single measurement accur- 
ately, yet we can reach a reliable result through many 
approximate measurements. But a discussion of this topic 
would carry us beyond our present purpose. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

i. What is the best way to find the excellence of oral 
reading? Of silent reading? How preserve a fixed stand- 
ard in each case? 

2. Do you defend the absolute standard of marking, or 
the practice of using a different standard for each class, 
according to its ability? Why? 

3. Show some differences between serving as a judge at a 
speaking contest and serving similarly at a jumping contest. 
In the first case, need the judge be himself a speaker? In 
the second, need he be a jumper? Why? 

4. What would be the best way to find out whether " the 
schools used to be away ahead of what they are now," or 
whether " writing and spelling were twice as good twenty 
years ago"? 

5. "What, you got a hundred in arithmetic this month? 
Then you must know it all! You won't have to study it 
any more." Where is the error in such a remark? 

6. How would you measure the relative values of two 
methods of teaching reading, or fractions? (1) Just what 
are you going to measure, (2) what shall be your standard, 
and (3) how can you apply it? 

7. For many purposes, approximate measurements are 
sufficient. Should we strive for great accuracy when assign- 
ing marks to pupils? Why? 

8. Do you think it wise to determine in advance that 
daily recitation shall count for three fourths, examination 



PEDAGOGICAL MEASUREMENTS 223 

one fourth, etc., in making up grades; or is it better to have 
no fixed rule, but assign each mark according to the merits 
of the individual case? Why? 

9. When several teachers independently grade the same 
paper, their marks sometimes vary considerably. Why is 
this? 

10. Should a teacher know whose paper she is marking? 
Can she not mark with greater justice if she does have full 
knowledge? Discuss this. 

n. Should attendance be allowed to influence class 
standing? Why? 

12. A bright student who has been out of school for some 
time enters a class rather late in the term, does a great deal 
of poor work, but at the end of the term is leading the class. 
Should his previous poor work be considered in making up 
his term average? Why? 

13. What is the value, from the standpoint of pedagogical 
measurement, of seeing exhibitions of work done in other 
schools? Should you like to have samples published in 
educational journals and books? 

REFERENCES 

Courtis, S. A., Courtis Tests in Arithmetic. (Obtained from 
the author, 82 Eliot St., Detroit, Mich.) 

Dearborn, Walter Fenno, School and University Grades. (Bul- 
letin No. 368, University of Wisconsin.) 

Galton, Francis, Inquiries into Human Faculty, article on 
"Statistical Methods." 

Thorndike, Edward L., Mental and Social Measurements. 

, Education. 

Whipple, Guy Montrose, Manual of Mental and Physical 
Tests. (Revised Edition.) 



PART FOUR 

TEACHING AS CONDITIONED 
BY SUBJECT MATTER 



Science and Art of Teach. — 15 



CHAPTER XX 

THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES * 

"A casual glance at pedagogical literature will show that we are 
much in need of an ultimate criterion for the values of studies. . . . 
At present we are apt to have two, three, or even four different stand- 
ards set up. . . . There is no conception of any single unifying prin- 
ciple. The point here made is that the extent and way in which a 
study brings the pupil to consciousness of his social environment, and 
confers upon him the ability to interpret his own powers from the 
standpoint of their possibilities in social use, is this ultimate and 
unified standard." f 

"The best way to avoid undesirable uniformity in schools is to push 
steadily toward the individualization of instruction by reducing the 
number of pupils assigned to one teacher. The larger the number of 
pupils assigned to one teacher, the greater the inevitable uniformity of 
method and pace, and the smaller the account that can be taken of 
individual peculiarities, good or bad. ... To the individualization 
of instruction will be added, in time, the careful study of each pupil's 
temperament, constitution, and mental aptitudes and defects. . . . "$ 

Exercise. — Make two lists of all the branches you have 
ever studied, beyond the " three R's." Arrange the first 
in the order of your liking for the studies at the time when 
you pursued them, taking care not to be influenced by your 

* Course of study refers to the work of a particular branch, as the 
course in arithmetic; a curriculum is a group of studies (courses) pur- 
sued by a given pupil or class of pupils; program of studies includes all 
the branches taught in a given school system. This is the terminology 
adopted by the Committee on College Entrance Requirements. 

f John Dewey, Ethical Principles Underlying Education. Used by 
permission of The University of Chicago Press. 

X Charles William Eliot, Educational Reform. Used by permis- 
sion of The Century Company, publishers. 

227 



228 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

attitude toward teachers, classmates, surroundings, etc. 
Arrange the second list in the order of benefit received from 
these branches. How do the two orders compare? Ask 
some of your mature friends to make similar lists for you. 

We found (in Chapter III) that method in teaching 
depends on (i) the child, (2) the teacher, (3) the world, and 
(4) the educational ideal. We have studied (in Part Two) 
" Method as Determined by the Nature of the Child," and 
(in Part Three) "Method as Related to the Teacher." We 
now take up "Teaching as Conditioned by Subject Matter." 
This subject matter is found in the program of studies. 
The program of studies is the teacher's kit of tools. As such, 
we should respect it and learn to use it as its nature de- 
mands; but we should not reverence it, or regard it as 
changeless or more powerful than ourselves. Like other frail 
things of human origin, it is made by somebody, for some- 
thing. Who is the somebody? What is the something? 
How can we best use these branches of study to achieve 
our educational ideal, to develop each pupil according to 
his nature, so as to make him most useful socially? 

The program of studies represents " the world." — It 
might be ideal if we could compress all the space and time 
known to us into the limits of a child's experience. Let him 
watch the formation of our solar system, help build the 
tower of Babel and invent a language, grow up as fast as 
arithmetic and geometry developed instead of being born a 
few centuries behind and struggling to catch up, participate 
in the painting of all pictures, repeat all inventions, sail 
and suffer with Columbus, and finally vote at the next 
election. Granted a brain which could take in all that and 
assimilate it, and our graduate of the university of the world 
would far outrank all living men. 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 229 

Such a curriculum, if ideal at all, must remain nothing 
but an ideal. Even if the material were at our command, 
no mind could master it all; representative parts only can 
be appropriated. No one head, even the greatest, contains 
all the science, or the literature, or the history of the world, 
or even one science, one literature, the history of one coun- 
try. As we cannot all assemble at our state capital to partic- 
ipate in governmental affairs, but must choose representa- 
tives who stand for us, so we cannot take all the world into 
our heads, or our hearts, or our schools, but must choose 
certain representative knowledges and bits of skill, type 
studies which stand for a great deal that we shall never 
master, mere tastes and samples of great stores of good 
things. 

What this world knowledge is. — Where does the world 
get this mental wealth from which we select representative 
parts for our courses of study? We have already seen (in 
Chapter I) that if men want to survive, they must beat 
nature at her own game, so to speak. At least they must 
understand and perhaps control some of her operations. 
Man wants food: he learns how to facilitate its growth from 
the earth. He needs clothing : he learns to card, spin, weave, 
sew. He wants shelter: he learns to chop, quarry, build. 
All our knowledge has come from our needs, either such as 
the grosser ones mentioned, or the more subtle need to know 
for the pure sake of knowing. 

Having made a place for himself in the world and ac- 
quired a little leisure, and having done so much and learned 
so much that he or his posterity was in danger of forgetting 
and losing something of value, he began to record the big 
things on stone, wax, paper, by means of knotted strings, 
and in other ways. 



230 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Much of value has no doubt been lost; but the more im- 
portant the knowledge or skill, the more likely was it to be 
preserved, either by the art of scribes and printers, or by 
unceasing practice. It is this mighty bulk, then, inherited 
from the past, together with the present world and all its 
activities, from which we choose the material for our curric- 
ulums. 

A schematic view of all knowledge.— Partly because 
various interests, such as those in science, art, and history, 
tend naturally to separate somewhat, partly for the sake 
of systematic study, the whole kingdom of our educational 
possessions is divided into provinces, as shown in the figure. 




It must of course be understood that these fields of knowl- 
edge are not sharply separated from each other so far as 






THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 231 

subject matter is concerned. The human body, for instance, 
may be worked over by natural science, or mathematically, 
or historically, or linguistically, or artistically, or philo- 
sophically. The chief difference is one of interest, need, 
purpose. 

At the heart of all stands philosophy, whose purpose is 
to criticize and unify and systematize the whole, to turn 
all these fragments into a universe, to give us one grand 
view of everything that exists, taken together. 

Should each child work in all these departments con- 
stantly? — Below is shown the form of school organization 
which, until recently, prevailed almost everywhere through- 
out the United States: 

Kind of school Grades or years 

Elementary i Primar y l > 2 > 3. 4 

( Grammar 5, 6, 7, 8 

Secondary High 9, 10, 11, 12 

However, it was the all-too-common experience that 
this system left, between grammar school and high school, 
a break, or "gap," across which many pupils failed to 
make their way. Accordingly, there is now a strong and 
commendable tendency, already effective in wide areas, to 
organize grades seven, eight, and nine into the Junior High 
School. This makes the plan appear as below: 

Kind of school Grades or years 

Elementary Iff""* *' »' 3 , 

( Intermediate 4, 5, 6 

(Junior High 7,8,9 

Secondary i „. , t uc . „. , m 

(High (or Senior High ) 10, 11, 12 



232 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Since the purpose of the curriculum is to introduce the 
child to his world, curriculum makers often assume that 
each of the departments of knowledge (named in the dia- 
gram) should be represented by one or more branches dur- 
ing each year of the pupil's school life.* 

To give the pupil a chance to develop in all these ways is 
certainly good; but to insist that he shall expand constantly 
and equally in all directions may do violence to his native 
interests and really hinder his development. 

Who should make curriculums? — The answer is, (i) he 
who best knows the child, (2) he who best knows the world, 
and (3) he who best knows the educational ideal and how to 
attain it. He should also know himself well enough to avoid 
the common blunder of emphasizing his favorite branches. 
The mathematician would have everybody thoroughly 
dosed with mathematics; the musician cannot believe that 
the unmusical are truly educated. It would be wise to 
assemble specialists in the lines enumerated, and let the 
curriculum be their joint product. 

When it became common for each school system to em- 
ploy a superintendent, he grew to be, in many instances, a 
man of authority, who handed out from his office a ready- 
made curriculum and then administered it by calendar 
doses, so much a day or month. No college president or 
board of trustees would adopt such a practice. Each pro- 
fessor practically makes his own course of study and ad- 



* Thus, in the primary grades we find number work (mathematics), 
nature study (science), history stories, language exercises, and writing 
or drawing; and so on through, until in the last years of the high school 
we come upon such subjects as trigonometry, chemistry, general 
history, Latin, and stenography, advanced drawing or color work, 
music, etc. Philosophy, being a discipline for mature minds, is 
usually found in college curriculums only. 






THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 233 

ministers it. It is true there is a wide difference between 
these two situations; but it is also true that the practical 
wisdom of the teacher, who stands next to the child, is often 
greater than that of her more highly educated superin- 
tendent. She should insist on her right, so rapidly becoming 
recognized, of assisting in the making of curriculums and 
courses of study. 

What should guide us in selecting material for our cur- 
riculums? — The following, though not the only principles 
to be observed, seem to require most emphasis. 

1. Each child should have his own curriculum. This, one 
might almost say, is at once impossible and inevitable. 
Public school systems can hardly be expected, as yet, to 
employ an expert to plan elaborately for each pupil indi- 
vidually. Yet try as we will, we cannot teach all parts of a 
rigorous and ready-made program of studies to all children ; 
each will inevitably pick and choose for himself. But we 
should encourage this picking and choosing, not tolerate or 
repress it. It is folly, to be condoned as an act of necessity 
only, to determine in advance just how many minutes a 
week each fifth-grade child shall spend on arithmetic. It 
is hard to say whether this is better or worse than the old 
country-school method of allowing each child to work at 
each subject just so long each day as he felt like working. 

2. Expose the child to a large environment, and develop to 
the moral limit the chief interests called forth. This does not 
mean that each child must cover the earth in his travels, 
although it is desirable that he should see both city and 
country, and as much (of the moral side) of each as possible. 
If Madame Montessori has developed anything new and 
useful to American pedagogy, it is the principle of letting 
the child alone sufficiently to study him and learn his traits, 



234 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

interests, and abilities, as a help in deciding what kind of 
education he should have. Physicians have taught us that 
diagnosis must precede treatment, and this holds true of 
the normal child, as well as of the abnormal. 

A farmer buys a puppy without inquiring as to its blood, 
expecting to train it into a good farm dog. It turns out to 
be a poodle. A teacher receives a pupil and straightway 
begins rigid number drill to develop some general mathe- 
matical ability. He turns out to be a poet, a historian, an 
artist, or a moron (a defective), who can never get quite 
through the multiplication table. Abilities differ. No cur- 
riculum can create abilities that are not born in the child, 
but it may leave them undeveloped and dormant if they 
are born in him. Hence the need of the wide range of 
(moral) environment to awaken whatever slumbers in the 
soul. 

But does not this mean specialism from the cradle? Yes; 
and we cannot wholly avoid it if we wish to; but we should 
not wish to. Not that each should know his little specialty 
only; for it is perfectly true that the educated man should 
know " something about everything and everything about 
something." But a tree grows from the trunk outward. 
As soon as we find the center of a child's interests, let us 
make his favorite study, so far as possible, the main body 
of his curriculum. To know his hobby wholly he must 
radiate out into every other branch, and these otherwise 
unwelcome branches become tolerable because they are 
bound up with the best beloved.* 

* A case in point is the anecdote of G. Stanley Hall as he tells it in 
Adolescence, Vol. I, pp. 1 29-131. He found that the study of a single 
muscle of a frog's leg compelled him to learn something of electricity, 
mechanics, the anatomy and physiology of other tissues, chemistry, 
mathematics, and the history of biology. He read all summer, and 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 235 

Interests and abilities may change and shift with age. 
For this reason we must subject the child again and again 
to the presence and stimulus of the music, mathematics, 
or other branch to which he does not at first respond, in 
the hope that love (or at least respect) for it and proficiency 
in it may yet develop in their own good time. For it is a 
well-known fact that abilities do have such "nascent peri- 
ods," and that neither the time nor the ord^er of their de- 
velopment is the same in all children, — another reason why 
no one curriculum can be made to fit all. 

3. So far as possible the pupil should participate in the real 
life of the world, not merely in a reproduction of it. The 
school, separated from the world, runs the danger of becom- 
ing systematized mimicry, a play, an imitation, a mirror of 
life instead of life itself. We make toy mountains of sand 
while nature's product stands neglected at our door; we 
memorize ancient history and neglect the history that is 
being made; we toy with tools and often remain ignorant 
of actual shop life. There is no such thing as real prepara- 
tion/^ life without real participation in life. But the young 
child should see the good only; he may behold the bad when 
his good habits have grown firmly fixed. 

4. The curriculum should face toward the future rather than 



then began a second year of research on the muscle "with the most 
eager curiosity and zest." 

"As the work went on," he says, "I felt that the mysteries not 
only of motor education and morality, but of energy and the universe, 
centered in this theme. ... In fine, in the presence of this tiny 
object I had gradually passed from the attitude of Peter Bell, of whom 
the poet says ' a primrose by a river's brim a yellow primrose was to 
him, and it was nothing more,' up to the standpoint of the seer who 
plucked a 'flower from the crannied wall,' and realized that could he 
but know what it was 'root and all and all in all,' he would know what 
God and man is." (Used by permission of D. Appleton and Company, 
publishers.) 



236 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

the past. The pupil is always a modern pupil who will spend 
most of his days in a world more modern than our modern 
present, the world which the future will develop out of this 
present. Consequently, the study of boy scout tactics or 
the practice of the fire drill is likely to prove more valuable 
than a study of the way Caesar drew up his forces on certain 
occasions; modern English is probably worth more than 
most ancient languages or literatures; and it augurs well for 
citizenship if there is an even keener relish for current 
events than for ancient history. 

Nevertheless, individuality should still count. If there is 
found one who persistently throws down the newspaper to 
take up ancient history, he should have such history to his 
satisfaction; but let us hope that such can learn to feel some 
interest in the world they live in, because it grew out of that 
past in which they would like to live. 

Are there any branches that must be mastered by all?— 
It is of course altogether desirable that all the children of a 
country learn to speak, read, and write a common language, 
know how to care for themselves, body and mind, how to 
recognize and secure good food and housing, how to transact 
simple business, make a living, and at the same time under- 
stand something of the civil and social doings of their own 
and other nations. It is not rash to hope and expect a much 
greater acquisition than this on the part of most of our 
youth. But no rule of " an average of seventy, with no mark 
below sixty " should be enforced, even for this modest list 
of desirables. 

Beyond the merest elements of a few studies, there is no 
branch that is absolutely essential to an education. Who- 
ever has found the purpose to which he can whole-heartedly 
devote himself, so that he can say of it, "To this end was I 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 237 

born and for this cause came I into the world," has either 
attained an education or is safe on the high road to such 
attainment. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. Which is the most valuable subject in the program of 
studies? Why? Why do not all give the same answer? 

2. Do you believe in elective studies? Why? 

3. Who made the program of studies in your school? 
When? 

4. Describe what you would regard as an ideal program 
of studies. 

5. In which department of the world's activities, mathe- 
matics, science, etc., are you likely to specialize? Why? 

6. Is it best to separate the " monotones" (those who 
sing but one tone) from the class of capable singers? Why? 

7. At what age can the student be trusted to make his 
own curriculum? Would this age be the same for all? 

8. Why should we have the past represented at all in the 
curriculum? 

9. Why is the history of literature commonly studied, 
while the history of mathematics is commonly neglected? 
Should this be so? 

10. Can the primary teacher be trusted to make her own 
curriculum? Why? 

11. Who should determine what English classics a stu- 
dent shall read? 

12. Why is not Hebrew taught in our high schools? Why 
are Greek and Latin taught in many of them? 

13. Outline an argument for uniformity in the studies 
to be pursued by all the children of a school system. 

14. Outline an argument against uniformity in the studies 
to be pursued by all the children of a school system. 

15. If variation is permissible in high school curriculums, 
why not in those of lower grades? 



238 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

16. State several reasons why the number of pupils 
assigned to each teacher is so important. 

17. How would you solve the problem of correlating 
studies? Can we, apart from the child, insure correlation 
by any clever contrivance in the way of arranging studies? 
Why? 

18. In the manual-training shop the chief punishment 
(in at least one city) is the loss of the privilege of working 
there. Why is not a similar loss of privilege an effective 
punishment in all classes? Should it be? 

19. Can we get an education more rapidly, by searching 
out and persistently engaging in those tasks which are 
especially difficult and disagreeable for us? 

20. If pupils were pursuing studies in which they took 
pleasure, would it be safe to remove the necessity of working 
to pass a grade? 

REFERENCES 

Charters, W. W., Methods of Teaching, Chs. II, VII. 

Eliot, Charles William, Educational Reform, Chs. VII, XI, 
XII, XIV. 

Hanus, Paul H., Educational Aims and Educational Values, 
Chs. I, III. 

Strayer, George Drayton, Brief Course in the Teaching Proc- 
ess, Ch. XVIII. 

Thorndike, Edward L., Education, Chs. VII, VIII. 






CHAPTER XXI 

SCIENCE 

"We believe, therefore, that these practical applications of science to 
life as a child meets them in his home and surroundings are the entrance 
way to science. They furnish the points of contact between man and 
nature, especially those points of contact which are manifest to all and 
first attract a child's notice. . . . The teacher in the laboratory is apt 
to think he can grade a much simpler series of experiments in his 
laboratory than outside life can furnish, and this may be true. But 
the motive for the demonstration and its later bearing upon life are 
both apt to be overlooked in such pure laboratory work. When once a 
good problem has been raised in life, it may be well to use all the de- 
vices of the laboratory to illuminate and clear it up; but the source from 
which the problem came, and the final reference of the whole experiment to 
its life application, are the things not to be forgotten." (Italics not in 
original.)* 

Exercise. — Describe the mental condition, and the situa- 
tion with regard to environment, of one who has reached 
the age of twenty, but has no scientific information. Men- 
tion, in particular, the dangers to which he is exposed. 

Nature of science. — We have seen that man is in the midst 
of an environment composed of mighty forces which will keep 
him safe if he learns how to cooperate with them, but which 
will pitilessly destroy him if he remains heedless of them. 

A little study will show us that the scientist is always 
doing one of two things : either he is collecting facts, observ- 
ing; or he is trying to make out what his facts mean — he is 

* Charles A. McMurry, Special Method in Elementary Science. 
Used by permission of The Macmillan Company, publishers. 

239 



240 



THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 



thinking. In knowledge-getting, then, the two great and 
essential processes are observing and thinking. 

Accordingly, all knowledge is either observed, or thought 
out, or both. This gives us four kinds of knowledge, thus: 

i. Observed but not thought out, as the fact that war 
followed the appearance of a comet. 

2. Observed and then thought out, as the growth of 
plants and the laws controlling it. 

3. Thought out and then observed, as the prediction of an 
eclipse and its later observation. 

4. Thought out but not observed, as the condition of the 
interior of the earth. 

A figure may help to make plain these four classes, and 
the position occupied by science, commonly so called. 

Thought out 



\1 


2 , x 


3 


4 






Deductive^ 


science 


N 


Empiricism 


Inductive 
science 




Mathematics 



Observed 

Showing the four classes of knowledge listed above. All to the left 
of the diagonal is " Observed," all to the right of it, "Thought out." 

Empiricism relies almost wholly on observations which 
stand as unrelated fragments, not rationalized, not bound 
together by any law or principle. It can easily believe that 
wars follow comets! 



SCIENCE 241 

Inductive science, geography, botany, chemistry, psy- 
chology, etc., keep close to the facts, but attempt to include 
these in generalizations, to explain them, find laws for them. 
Each no sooner imagines a possible law than it returns to the 
field of observation to see if the law works. 

Nor is there any sharp dividing line between inductive 
and deductive science, for both induction and deduction are 
found to some extent in all sciences. The better developed 
a science is, the more laws it has found, the more can reason- 
ing run ahead of observation; and this placing of reasoning 
first and observing second is exactly what makes a science 
deductive. As soon as any science succeeds in finding a 
law that fitly assembles and joins a wide stretch of our jig- 
saw puzzle of facts, that law seems as certain as the facts 
themselves, a reliable source from which to infer new truths. 
So the law of gravity, established by a long process of induc- 
tion, is now the safe support on Which to hang a legion of 
deductions. Physics, with its many old and thoroughly 
tested laws, is preeminently the deductive science, mathe- 
matics excepted. 

Value of science to the world at large. — It is the great 
service of science, especially of that science called "natural" 
(as distinguished from mental, social, and historical science), 
to enable us to win in the contest with our natural environ- 
ment. Man must learn how to get from this natural world 
the wherewithal to live, to keep his fires burning, his cellars 
filled, his body free from disease. 

Herbert Spencer established five grades for the value of 
knowledge, according to the aid it gives in (1) direct self- 
preservation, (2) indirect self-preservation, that is, securing 
the necessaries of life, (3) the rearing and discipline of off- 
spring, (4) the maintenance of proper social and political 

Science and Art of Teaching. — 16 



242 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

relations, and (5) the miscellaneous activities of leisure. 
It is evident that science scores heavily on every one of these 
points. There is scarcely an object in our environment or 
a moment of our day that does not remind us of its constant 
benefits. Take away what science has contributed, and man 
would begin again at the stone age. 

The purpose of science in the schools. — Since the aim of 
education is the same as the aim of life, the purpose of sci- 
ence in the schools is the same as it is in the world at large, 
to teach the rules of the life-and-death game which we are 
all playing with our environment. Our chief aim, then, is 
a very practical one: to teach our pupils how to deal suc- 
cessfully with everyday problems that demand scientific 
information, how to avoid disease, take care of the body, 
earn a living. 

When a city such as New York has in its public schools 
lectures on the care of babies, it extends the usefulness of 
public school science to "the rearing and discipline of off- 
spring," Spencer's third class of knowledge value. 

Further, as the pupil passes on through grammar grades 
and high school, he learns to appreciate the method by which 
facts and laws are established, — he can establish some for 
himself. This should make him cautious as to his own 
statements and critical of the statements of others, not in 
science only, but everywhere and always; should teach him 
to trust, not merely what has been said over and over so 
often that it ought to be true, but that which can stand 
every test that science can bring to bear on it.* 

Finally, we all wish to enjoy this beautiful, wonderful 
world. Merely to contemplate it, to gaze upon its miracles, 
sometimes as fearful bulks in the dark, sometimes illumined 

* See the quotation at the opening of Chapter I. 



SCIENCE 243 

by the spotlight of clear understanding, to throb with sym- 
pathy at the thought that we are eternally a part of it, — 
this is the joy of the disciple of nature. 

Subject matter and method. — Subject matter here as 
everywhere should consist of what is most interesting and 
most practical, what the pupil needs and what he likes, in so 
far as these can be joined together. 

One of the surest ways to hit upon the right method is 
to ask ourselves what kind of lesson we are trying to give, 
whether it is for information, thought, skill, or appreciation. 
Having decided this, perhaps the greatest danger lies in the 
fact that since methods in science work below the high 
school are still in an unstable state, and since the teacher is 
likely to have had some advanced training, he will attempt 
to repeat both the matter and the manner of his own learn- 
ing. In the information lesson, for example, where descrip- 
tion is often called for, it is most deadening to young enthu- 
siasm to be put into the strait-jacket of systematic and 
minute analysis as this is found in advanced textbooks. 
And in the lesson for thought, we should beware how we 
bring the definition (say that of a machine) into the class- 
room, and leave the thing defined outside. 

Both subject matter and method, below the high school, 
are still somewhat loose and rambling. In nature study 
especially, there is no established course. But the general 
relation between the work in "the grades" and that in the 
high school seems likely to become the same in this branch 
as in others; in the elementary school the watchword is 
observation; in the secondary school, demonstration. In 
the grades everything is psychologically organized about the 
pupil as a center; in the high school, while we do not disre- 
gard the learner, we find that his developing mind demands 



244 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

a more closely wrought and logical organization of subject 
matter. He must know the why of things, must do the 
thinking out as well as the observing. 

Branches of science in the elementary school. — All nat- 
ural science grows out of nature — is nature study more or 
less advanced. Out of the nature study of the primary 
school develop two branches, the personal and the environ- 
mental. The science of personal welfare is hygiene and 
physiology; the science of the environment is geography. 

. ( Personal science : Hygiene 
Nature Study < _ . L . . _ . 

( Environmental science : Geography 

Nature study. — The great difficulty with this subject 
is its bulkiness. The conscientious teacher is likely to feel 
that, however hard she and her class may delve, they are 
sure to leave a legion of valuable facts untouched, — perhaps 
the very ones on which most emphasis is laid in some neigh- 
boring school system. But we should be glad of our infinite 
abundance; what if we had but one season, no insects, but 
one kind of animal and two or three plant types! Nature 
has settled the question for us; there is no hope of possessing 
all her wealth; we can only collect a coin or two from each 
of her treasuries. We must study individuals and let them 
stand as representatives of multitudes of their kind. 

The essential points are (i) to find something interesting, 
(2) which is also useful, and (3) to study it at first hand, 
going out to find the objects in their natural setting when- 
ever possible, using schoolroom or museum samples when 
necessary, and resorting to books for supplementary in- 
formation chiefly. As it is difficult to find anything really 
useless, the principle of interest can be given pretty free play. 
This is sure to result in the usual arrangement of material 



SCIENCE 245 

by seasons or months. But it ought not to be difficult 
for the childish interest to embrace, each season, (a) some- 
thing of inanimate nature, the falling snow, the summer 
heat, (b) representative plants, and (c) typical animals. 
Such a program will vary with different latitudes, environ- 
ments, classes, but in every case it should insure the enjoy- 
ment of nature; an understanding of the relations of its 
parts, as the office of insects in fertilizing plants; and the 
ability to turn the knowledge gained to practical account, 
as the boy scouts and campfire girls do in their various 
devices. 

The child is rare who is not interested in some phase of 
nature. The course may well begin in the toy age, and we 
should endeavor to preserve its continuity into the more 
rigidly organized high-school science. There must be no 
sharp break between the two. The recognition of this fact 
has led us to place " elementary science," with its easy ex- 
periments from physics, chemistry, etc., in the upper gram- 
mar grades. It affords a practical, concrete introduction 
to the science work of the high school. 

Hygiene and physiology.— The object of this science is the 
preservation of the person. Our aim is not so much to take 
the offensive and conquer our environment as to strengthen 
our defenses against the enemy, seen and unseen. 

Personal hygiene "includes everything that bears upon 
the health of the human body. Such a scope would include 
the various sub- topics connected directly and indirectly with 
the following subjects: Bodily nourishment, including food, 
water, and air; the excretions; exercise; rest; the influence 
of abnormal conditions on health, e. g., defective vision, bad 
teeth, adenoids, constipation, etc.; the influence of certain 
habits on health, e. g., rapid eating, bad habits of vision, 



246 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

smoking, drug habits, sexual habits, etc. ; the causes of dis- 
ease; the carriers of disease; our defenses against disease; 
and the nature of our common diseases." * From this we 
pass naturally to home and school sanitation, medical in- 
spection, community and race hygiene. The course should 
grade up to a scientific demonstration of these truths in 
the high school. 

Of course the pupil cannot develop all this afresh, as the 
scientist works it out, but he can acquire a fund of informa- 
tion, can practice good health habits, form ideals. And 
we can quickly convince him that he is interested in these 
things if he is interested in living. 

Physiology is simply auxiliary here — and psychology too, 
for that matter. These sciences teach us what the mind 
and the organs of the body do,' and the only need the chil- 
dren have for such information is to enable them to care 
properly for both. This shows us at once the limited 
amount of physiology to be taught, — merely enough to 
make clear the hygiene. We should teach, too, at least a 
little mental hygiene, based on psychology: how to begin the 
day with a smile, cultivate a sense of humor, bring our 
joviality to the table, cast out all fear. Even children 
should know these things, and should crystallize their 
knowledge into pleasant habit. 

The method cannot always be observational. It cannot 
well be so in teaching of disease germs, for example. But 
this method should be our ideal, and the abundance of 
pictures and other objective aids helps us much. Health 
habits, in so far as the school can control them, must be 
drilled home with kindly but inflexible determination. 

* Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education, article on "Hygiene, Personal." 
Used by permission of The Macmillan Company, publishers. 



SCIENCE 247 

Geography.— In this science we turn from our attitude 
of hygienic self-defense to an aggressive examination of our 
environment. We study geography, because we wish to 
know the kind of world we live in, what it is likely to do to 
us, and what we can do with it. We want to be able to 
predict and to control its operations; to know our national 
neighbors, and how we, as one great human family, can 
make this old earth yield us all a happy living. 

In the light of this, how insignificant become the swarms 
of little facts which so often clutter up our geography text- 
books. It is not the petty straits and bays, towns and el- 
bows of rivers that we need to know, but how man, the 
heaven-born pioneer, has made and is making a home and a 
career for himself on this none too hospitable planet. Our 
facts should all be culled with reference to this principle. 

Here again we start with the observational method, study- 
ing our home geography out of doors, building up apper- 
ceptive centers by means of which to interpret maps and 
descriptions of those parts of the world we cannot visit. Ad- 
vanced work in geography is very largely the interpretation 
of such maps and descriptions, as we proceed from our little 
home areas to larger and larger horizons. Because the map, 
the model, the drawing, the photograph, and the verbal 
description are of such inevitable importance, the pupil 
must become skillful in picturing, mapping, and describing 
his own geographical surroundings in order that he may cor- 
rectly interpret such representations of unknown regions. 
He must not think, as children sometimes do, that New 
York is red, Pennsylvania green, etc., or that one crosses 
a visible line in passing from state to state. 

The applications of this science form what we may call 
the geographical arts, the processes by which man earns 



248 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

from his environment his food, clothing, fuel, shelter. 
Agriculture, the great food art, is receiving in our schools 
an ever-widening recognition. 

The mental and social sciences. — In considering our ad- 
justment to environment, we must not forget that a large 
part of the environment of each of us, and often the most 
important part so far as our success is concerned, consists 
of other human beings. We must know ourselves, our fel- 
low men, and the relations between us. We must study (or 
at least practice) psychology, sociology, economics, ethics, 
and logic. 

Of course these can have no place in the elementary 
school, except in the form of unorganized information and 
certain wholesome habits and ideals. But the high-school 
mind is sufficiently mature to profit by the elements of all 
these subjects in a lively, concrete form. Their general 
educational value would probably compare well with that of 
other high-school branches. We need more secondary 
school teachers who have the ability and training to present 
these subjects suitably for young people, and more text- 
books written for this specific purpose. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. State the psychological reasons why nature study 
cannot be taught from books alone. 

2. What value is there in allowing a child to make deduc- 
tions and test them? How do we train ourselves to foretell 
the weather? 

3. How would you disabuse a child of the belief that the 
moon controls the weather? 

4. If the human race had to sacrifice either its knowledge 
of history or of science, which could it better afford to lose? 
Why? 



SCIENCE 249 

5. "Science teaches us to observe carefully and record 
accurately." Discuss this statement from the standpoint 
of formal discipline. 

6. " We must not study frogs in the fourth grade, for we 
studied them last year in the third." Is this sound? Why? 

7. State some differences between the study of trees in 
high-school botany and the study of them in grade five. 

8. What, if anything, do you wish had been added to 
your early training in nature study, hygiene, or geography? 

9. How do you account for so much cigarette smoking by 
boys, when the evil effects of the habit are taught to all? 

10. Need the details of the circulation of blood in the 
heart be taught to grammar-grade pupils? Why? 

1 1 . Write a brief essay on " The school garden as a nature- 
study center." 

12. Discuss the values of the following in teaching geog- 
raphy: magazines, moving pictures, post cards, correspond- 
ence with distant pupils, stereoscopes, stereopticons, lec- 
tures, the school museum, the sand table, the textbook, the 
blackboard, the copying of maps. 

13. Do you agree with what is said about the mental and 
social sciences? Why? 

REFERENCES 

Davis, William Morris, Geographical Essays. 
Dodge, Richard Eiwood, and Kirchwey, Clara Barbara, 
The Teaching of Geography in Elementary Schools. 
Geikie, Archibald, The Teaching of Geography. 
Huxley, Thomas Henry, Science and Education. 
McMurry, Charles A., Special Method in Elementary Science. 
Parker, Francis W., How to Study Geography. 
Schmucker, Samuel Christian, The Study of Nature. 
Spencer, Herbert, Education. 
Thomson, J. A., Introduction to Science, 



CHAPTER XXII 

MATHEMATICS 

"There is probably more time wasted in the teaching of arithmetic 
than in the teaching of any other subject. Long problems are given 
instead of short; intricate ones instead of simple; things unlike the 
operations of actual life instead of what is practical. Children are 
burdened with dreadful 'examples' for 'home work' which, if solved 
at all, are solved by the aid of parents or older brothers and sisters. 
Time is consumed in work which children cannot possibly understand 
or appreciate. . . . Time was when it was considered sufficient to 
learn by rote definitions of technical terms employed, to memorize a 
rule without understanding its reasons, and to apply it to the solution 
of problems precisely worded. When the rule was forgotten or the 
problem differently worded, the power of solution was obliterated. 
But no matter; unreasonable work of this kind was thought in some 
inexplicable way to train the reasoning powers; the child was supposed 
to learn to think by a process that required no thinking. The doc- 
trine of apperception has changed all our ideas on this matter." * 

Exercise. — Ask a class of children to make up some 
arithmetic problems about the things that most interest 
them. Compare these problems with those found in the 
textbook. 

Try to secure statements from your friends of middle 
age as to the value to them of the mathematics they studied 
in the elementary or the secondary school. How, if at all, 
would they change the character or amount of instruction 
there? 

The value of mathematics to the world at large. — It would 



* William H. Maxwell, Educational Review, Vol. Ill, p. 475. Used 
by permission. 

250 



MATHEMATICS 251 

be hard to overstate the importance of mathematics. Our 
calendar expresses it, historical events are set in order by it, 
every natural science mounts by it, all industrial arts are 
wedded to it. Theorist or practitioner, no one can escape it. 
Nor does our little world bound it. Other worlds may easily 
have different history, different botany, different psychol- 
ogy, different literature from ours, but it is next to impossi- 
ble to conceive of their having any mathematics different 
from ours. 

Yet despite this apparently universal truth and utility, 
there is but slight demand, in the daily lives of most of us, 
for anything more than the merest rudiments of number 
and quantity. They are few who do not need a modicum of 
mathematics, but they also are few who need anything more. 
Of course, we all profit by the genius of the expert mathe- 
matician, as we do by the devotion of the expert physician, 
but that is no reason for becoming either kind of expert 
unless our "call" takes us that way. 

Nature of mathematics. — Mathematics is a kind of 
science. In beginning the study of it, we should make many 
observations of the world about us, as we do in other sci- 
ences. But the peculiarity of mathematics is, that we so 
quickly pass on from the "observing" stage to the "reason- 
ing" stage. Its generalizations, some of which are called 
axioms, form the foundation of a great mass of deductions 
which make up the bulk of the science. It is "the" de- 
ductive science. 

Mathematics, then, has few (observed) facts to remember, 
— no such burden of them as we find in geography, botany, 
or chemistry. It is a thinker's paradise, for a certain kind 
of thinker. 

Educational value of mathematics. — In some quarters 



252 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

it is still necessary to dispel the delusion that each branch 
of study has some peculiar mental power to develop. The 
truth seems to be that any branch of study can be so taught 
that it will train any mental power to act on that kind of 
subject matter, but not, usually, on all kinds. Thus 
mathematics develops, in one who has the "gift" for it, 
mathematical observation, mathematical memory, mathe- 
matical imagination, judgment, reasoning, feeling. 

But it cannot of itself develop the power to reason well 
on all subjects. "It is more than doubtful . . . whether 
the severe study of arithmetic would make any material 
difference in a man's capacity, as a juryman, to draw sound 
conclusions from a tangled mass of evidence, or as a citizen, 
to trace admitted governmental evils to their source. . . 
Facility in the one kind of reasoning is no more a guaranty 
of facility in the other than is proficiency in playing golf of 
proficiency in playing chess." * The general truth of this 
statement has been borne out by the recent developments 
of experimental pedagogy. 

Our chief aim in teaching mathematics to children is to 
enable them to solve the problems of everyday life, as those 
problems appear in the household, the market, and the shop. 
If we accomplish this aim, "discipline" and "culture" will 
take care of themselves. 

This means that it is the art of mathematics, rather than 
the science, that we are trying to impart. We should not 
care, until the child himself naturally desires to understand, 
whether he can "explain" his addition and long division, 
his fractional and other operations, or not. But we should 
care constantly that he perform these operations with speed 

* J. P. Gordy, A Broader Elementary Education, p. 217. Used by 
permission of Hmds, Hayden and Eldridge, publishers. 



MATHEMATICS 253 

and accuracy. In other words the early lessons in mathe- 
matics should not be " thought lessons" only, but observa- 
tion lessons, information lessons, and especially lessons for 
skill. We are too much afraid of letting our children imi- 
tate us in mathematical operations, as they do in skating 
and shooting marbles. Even problem solving is partly 
habit. 

In addition to this very practical reason for teaching a 
little mathematics to everybody, there is a special reason 
for teaching a great deal of mathematics to the limited num- 
ber who have strong talent for it ; it will serve them in their 
vocations as engineers, architects, investigators. So far 
as possible, we should teach mathematics to each child in 
accordance with what he is likely to do with it. One gains 
merely the art of reckoning, another glimpses the science 
of number, a third proves to have been born to further the 
cause of mathematics in the world. Vocation determines 
the value. 

Subject matter. — More and more the principle prevails 
that subject matter shall be selected according to the needs 
of the pupils. "What can we leave out?" is the common 
question, and rightly. We are leaving out of arithmetic 
such subjects as obsolete or little-used measures and 
tables, unusually intricate or lengthy problems, progres- 
sions, series, compound proportion, annuities, cube root, 
and many other subjects.* At the same time the stress is 
ever more and more on the applications of such topics as are 
taught, to practical problems — pupils 1 problems. 

The course in elementary mathematics is made more 

* From secondary-school algebra we find disappearing the more 
elaborate method of finding the highest common factor, difficult 
simultaneous quadratics, all equations beyond the second degree, and 
other labored and little used topics. 



254 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

practical, unified, and natural, by combining with arith- 
metic the simpler (and more useful) parts of algebra and 
geometry. Pupils no longer exhaust their arithmetical 
powers and then take up algebra; arithmetic and algebra 
are so combined in the upper grades of the grammar school 
that the pupil finds no precise point at which he can say 
arithmetic ends and algebra begins. He is no longer 
cramped by the command, " Solve by arithmetic." He 
solves all problems by the most direct method he can 
find.* 

The grammar school also is coming to have a geometry 
of its own. The pupil is not puzzled with the abstractions 
of advanced geometry. He demonstrates by doing, studies 
the geometry of perceptions rather than that of ideas. A 
line is to him the path of his knife point or a well-sharpened 
pencil, and not a refined idea with nothing in the outside 
world quite good enough to correspond with it. He works 
with things, finding parallel lines in his environment, con- 
structing angles, snipping off the corners of a quadrilateral 
to show that they just fill in the space about a point, etc. 
This work is supplemented by that in mechanical drawing. 

This brings about a close correlation among the various 
branches of mathematics. The correlation of mathematical 
with other subject, matter will take care of itself if the 
mathematics is developed, as it ought to be, from real 
juvenile needs. The subject matter should be so handled 
as to extend the child's experience and increase his feeling 
of mastery. In the figure, if the circle E represents the 
child's experience, D, falling well within it, gives us the range 
of material for developmental and illustrative work. But 

* There is a strong recent tendency to combine algebra and geome- 
try in the high school. The plan deserves further experimentation. 



MATHEMATICS 255 

any principle, having been developed, illustrated, and well 
drilled in, should be given a wider range of application, 
represented by circle A . A pupil who learns how to get the 




volume of a sphere can apply the formula (roughly) to the 
earth, sun, or moon. The result is similar with new combi- 
nations of old things; a boy who knows the circumference 
of his bicycle wheel can tie a small flag to one of the spokes 
and measure the distance between home and school. 

But it is quite wrong to suppose that we can teach much 
geography or history or any other subject merely by offering 
information problems in that subject when teaching arith- 
metic. This is much like wearing skates when learning to 
dance, so as to master both skating and dancing by a single 
effort. A few may succeed in spite of the divided attention 
and effort. 

General method in mathematics. — Speaking generally, 



256 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

there are but two kinds of work to master in mathematics. 
They are: 

1. Fixed operations, such as addition and multiplica- 

tion. 

2. Problems to which these operations are applied. 

1. As stated before, many of the fixed operations should 
be regarded as acts of skill, learned chiefly by imitating the 
teacher, and left unexplained. This method should always 
be followed when the explanation proves to be a stumbling 
block, as in the case of division of fractions. Let us teach 
practical doing, the art of calculating, whether we teach the 
elegant science of arithmetic or not. 

When it seems likely that a class can get some under- 
standing of the process to be taught, it may be approached 
as a problem to be solved. The following is suggested as a 
good type of general procedure. 

(a) Let the new truth appear in the guise of a problem. 
For instance, when the class is ready to work out a rule for 
finding the area of a rectangle, we may propose the ques- 
tion, How can we find the number of squares in a checker 
board without counting them all? 

(b) Let the pupils solve the problem under the guidance 
and leadership of the teacher. The work should be concrete 
and mainly oral. When a rule or principle is developed, a 
brief statement of it should be formulated and recorded. 
For example: 

Area of rectangle = B X A. 

(c) This terse statement should be fixed by repetition and 
drilled upon orally until it can be applied accurately and 
readily. Let it circulate all round the class. 

(d) Fix the most desirable written form by practice on 
board or paper, the teacher carefully supervising. 



MATHEMATICS 257 

(e) Let the pupils, as independently as may be, apply the 
knowledge gained to situations which to them are real and 
interesting problems. 

2. The solution of particular problems may proceed some- 
what as follows: 

(a) Image vividly the conditions of the problem, drawing 
a figure or picture if necessary, to aid. 

(b) Discover just where or how the "answer" must fit in 
with the rest, and consequently how it can be obtained from 
the facts given. 

(c) Translate the language of the problem into figures, 
and solve, writing no explanations except such as are neces- 
sary to aid the solver himself. 

(d) When the answer is obtained in figures, state what it 
means in the concrete terms of the problem. 

Concerning analyses and explanations, so often abused, 
Dr. Smith is eminently quotable: " (1) To require that every 
applied problem should be solved in steps is to encourage 
arithmetical dawdling. ... (2) To split hairs on such ques- 
tions of form as 9 X 15c or 15c X 9 is to get away from the 
essential point. ... (3) To require no analyses of the ap- 
plied problems is an extreme that is about as bad as to re- 
quire them for all, and perhaps worse. ... (4) To require 
some particular form of analysis, only to meet the idiosyn- 
crasy of the teacher, is also a danger against which we need 
to be on our guard. ... In general, therefore, the teacher 
should see to it that there is a reasonable amount of rapid, 
accurate solution, the ' answers' being the paramount 
object. He should see also that there is a reasonable 
amount of written analysis, preferably in the convenient 
form of steps, but not limited in any notional way that 
would destroy originality or make a solution unnecessarily 

Science and Art of Teaching. — 17 



2$S THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

long." * Formal, detailed analysis should not be required 
too early — say before grade seven — but problems should be 
talked over and reasoned out informally from the very be- 
ginning of school work. 

The psychology of arithmetic— Fundamentally, arith- 
metic is counting up and down the number scale, with the 
invention of such short cuts as addition, division, etc., to 
quicken the process. Whatever the adult may make of his 
concept of number when he analyzes it, there is little doubt 
as to how the child gets hold of the idea. Out of the " bloom- 
ing, buzzing confusion" that surrounds the young child, 
there comes home to him very early the consciousness of 
changes, and particularly those rhythmical changes that 
readily form series. This series idea is built up from many 
sources, breathing, running, the clock tick, the drum, the 
accented notes in music. 

The series idea is the basis of the number concept. 

The series need not be named at first. The essential 
thing is that it should be abstracted, that is, separated from 
any particular concrete objects or events that have helped 
to build it up. This abstract series idea can then be applied 
in a manner that seems very much like counting, as in the 
case of the child who reproduces the strokes of the clock 
without using number names, saying, for example, "Boom! 
boom! boom!" when the clock strikes three. 

Next comes the learning of the number names. The first 
"counting" should not be applied to things, any more than 
one would point to objects when repeating a Mother Goose 
rime. It is purely a memory drill on a series of names. It 
is important, then, that the numbers be taught in their 

* David Eugene Smith, Teachers College Record, Jan., 1909. Used 
by permission. 



MATHEMxVTICS 259 

natural order. Having now gained his abstract series idea 
named with the number names, he is ready to apply it. 
Care is necessary that the number names be not applied at 
random, or regarded as the names of certain individuals. 
Phillips gives a case of a boy who counted his neighbor's 
four dogs as follows: "Tip is naught, Bob is one, Nero is 
two, and Dandie is three." * 

The pupil may now proceed to count all sorts of things 
in which he is interested, using his ringers, the original basis 
of the "tens" system, as freely as he chooses. Objects also 
find a large place in the development of addition tables, etc., 
but the transition from things to pictures of things and then 
to symbols purely, may follow rapidly, f 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. It is sometimes urged that pupils should write their 
problems, because they must certainly think of the problem 
while they are writing it. Is this argument sound? Why? 

2. " Mathematics teaches us to reason." Discuss this 
pro and con. 

3. State the psychological reason for not using, in the 
very beginning of arithmetic, such general symbols as those 
employed in algebra. 

4. State, in terms of habit, the reason why children should 
not long continue the use of objects in computation. 

5. Show that all arithmetic can be reduced to a matter 
of counting up and down the number scale. 

6. Visit some classes in mathematics, and try to work 
out the psychological reasons for the errors you find. 

* D. E. Phillips, Number and Its Applications Psychologically Con- 
sidered, p. 11. 

f The above is offered as a mere hint of a type study in the psy- 
chology of number. I believe it touches a critical point, and that a 
little more of this kind of knowledge would prevent much of the use- 
less rambling so often found in methods of teaching arithmetic. 



260 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

7. What use can be made of arithmetic in the teaching of 
algebra? 

8. " Mathematical study begets accuracy, the prime 
requisite of the truth teller, and so has a high moral value." 
Comment on this. 

9. Make a list of those topics in arithmetic for which you 
have found frequent actual use since you left school. 

10. Discuss "The use of imagery in mathematical study." 
n. Should models be used "in the study of geometry? 

Why? 

12. What proportion of the work in arithmetic should be 
oral? On what do you base your answer? 

13. How should you proceed with the boy who counted, 
"Tip is naught, Bob is one," etc.? 

REFERENCES 

Ball, W. W. Rouse, A Short Account of the History of Math- 
emalics. 

Gilbert, Chas. B., What Children Study and Why, Chs. X-XII. 

Hanus, Paul H., Geometry in the Grammar School. 

Hunt, E., Concrete Geometry for Grammar Schools. 

Phillips, D. E., Number and Its Applications Psychologically 
Considered. 

Smith, David Eugene, The Teaching of Elementary Mathe- 
matics. 

Suzzalo, Henry, The Teaching of Primary Arithmetic. 

Young, J. W. A., The Teaching of Mathematics in the Element- 
ary and the Secondary School. 

Mathematics in the Elementary Schools of the United States. 
Government Printing Office. 

Report of the American Commissioners of the International 
Commission on the Teaching of Mathematics. Government 
Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

HISTORY 

"We no longer go to history for lessons in morals, nor for good 
examples of conduct, nor yet for dramatic or picturesque scenes. We 
understand that for all these purposes legend would be preferable to 
history, for it presents a chain of causes and effects more in accordance 
with our ideas of justice, more perfect and heroic characters, finer and 
more affecting scenes. Nor do we seek to use history for the pur- 
pose of promoting patriotism and loyalty; we feel that it would be 
illogical for different persons to draw opposite conclusions from the 
same science according to their country or party; it would be an invi- 
tation to every people to mutilate, if not to alter, history in the di- 
rection of its preferences. We understand that the value of every 
science consists in its being true, and we ask from history truth and 
nothing more. 

"The function of history in education is perhaps not yet clearly 
apparent to all those who teach it. But all those who reflect are 
agreed to regard it as being principally an instrument of social culture. 
The study of the societies of the past causes the pupil to understand, 
by the help of actual instances, what a society is; it familiarizes him 
with the principal social phenomena and the different species of 
usages, their variety, and their resemblances. The study of events 
and evolutions familiarizes him with the idea of the continual trans- 
formation which human affairs undergo, it secures him against an 
unreasoning dread of social changes; it rectifies his notion of progress. 
All these acquisitions render the pupil fitter for public life; history 
thus appears as an indispensable branch of instruction in a democratic 
society." * 



* Ch. V. Langlois and Ch. Seignobos, Introduction to the Study of 
History. (Berry's Translation.) Used by permission of Henry Holt 
and Company, publishers. 

261 



262 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Exercises. — Write a historical account of some party, 
game, or other event which you have recently witnessed, and 
compare your report with that of several others. Do they 
agree? If not, who is right? Are all facts reported? 

Compare several newspaper accounts of any important 
event — " specials," not syndicate reports. What lessons can 
be drawn from them? 

Write the history of some event that occurred in your 
family or neighborhood before you were born. How do you 
know when you have the truth of the matter? 

As we approach the study of history, one of the most 
necessary precautions is that we assume toward it the 
scientific attitude. If the past were a museum into which 
we could enter and see how things actually were, we should 
hardly dare to take such liberties with it as we some- 
times do. 

Instead of open-mindedly facing the past, resolved to 
accept whatever shall be revealed regardless of conse- 
quences, we are too inclined to form a mold of preconcep- 
tions and force the facts to fit it. To the religionist, history 
often becomes the story of God's unfolding plan of the ages; 
to the moralist, it may be a collection of ethical object les- 
sons; to the statesman, a textbook of patriotism; to the man 
of letters, a mere branch of literature. We should assume 
none of these things, not even progress, or a purposive plan 
of occurrence. History is simply the science of what came 
to pass, especially as affecting human beings. 

History as a science. — If we can agree that history is the 
science of the past, how does it differ from other sciences? 
Not in its fundamental purpose, for that is the same in all 
sciences, to understand the world that we may cope with it 
successfully. It is distinguished by its subject matter, and 



HISTORY 263 

by the departures from scientific method which this peculiar 
subject matter makes necessary. 

Its subject matter is that which no longer exists. The 
human race is like a traveler whose light can but half 
penetrate the mist both before and behind him. Both 
the future and the past belong to that kind of knowledge 
which must be reasoned out but cannot now be observed, — 
and the past has slipped away from our observation 
forever. 

It is just here that history fails from a scientific stand- 
point. For whereas a science like physics can observe its 
facts directly, record them, and proceed to explain them, 
history can observe its facts, the happenings of bygone days, 
indirectly only; must reconstruct them by imagination and 
thought before it can draw inferences from them. This 
process may be as truthful or as faulty as the zoological 
restoration of an extinct animal. 

The reconstruction of the past. — An event occurs, a bat- 
tle, a death, a change of custom. This event impresses its 
witnesses, observers, or participants, in certain ways. They 
describe it truthfully or untruthfully; if truthfully, they 
employ such words as seem to them fit to convey their 
meaning. The historian, prejudiced or unprejudiced, reads 
these words, perhaps centuries later, gives them what 
meaning he can in terms of his modern experience, tries to 
rebuild in his own mind the mental picture that was in the 
mind of the witness, and from this infers what the event 
itself must have been like. The historian then rephrases 
the story for us, and we build our own mental picture, 
trusting that the facts, after these two objective recordings 
and three subjective reproductions, may, if possible, re- 
main undistorted! 



264 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

A diagram will make this plain. 

The event 
itself 



Historical ^ 
document -^- 



Volume of4r 
" history" 



^Mind of witness 



,«d Mind of historian 



^Mind of reader 

We cannot discuss here the additional circumstances that 
sometimes make the transmission of facts more trustworthy, 
such as the agreement of independent lines of evidence, 
nor those that are unfavorable, such as the fact that most 
witnesses have trusted their memories, instead of recording 
the events immediately, as scientific practice would require. 
But the general process of transmitting historical evidence 
is substantially as described. 

Historical science and other sciences. — Having gathered, 
in this indirect and partially trustworthy fashion, what it 
believes to be the facts, history deals with them in the usual 
scientific way, classifying, generalizing, explaining in terms 
of cause and effect. Love of gain, of religious freedom, or 
what not, caused our early colonists to brave the dangers 
of the deep. The principle of union versus secession caused 
our Civil War. History, then, is no mere record of past 



HISTORY 265 

events; like other sciences it consists of facts systematized 
according to laws and principles. 

However, this discovery of laws has not proceeded far in 
history. The tests of scientific knowledge are prediction 
and control : what historian can predict the future, or gain 
control over the trend of events? 

Moreover, all the past must be explained in terms of the 
present; history cannot give as the cause of a fact anything 
which the other sciences do not now recognize as a cause. 
For instance, no sane historian explains peculiar conduct 
as due to a devil; the scientific term is epilepsy, psychas- 
thenia, or the like. 

From all this it follows that history must always be sub- 
ordinate to the sciences that deal with present-day experi- 
ence. "The indirect method of history is always inferior 
to the direct methods of the sciences of observation. If 
its results do not harmonize with theirs, it is history which 
must give way; historical science, with its imperfect means 
of information, cannot claim to check, contradict, or correct 
the results of other sciences, but must rather use their re- 
sults to correct its own. ... It is kept at a distance from 
reality by its indirect means of information, and must 
accept the laws that are established by those sciences which 
come into immediate contact with reality.* 

Social value of history. — If we wish to understand the 
value of history to the world at large, let us imagine that all 
historical knowledge has perished. The world would be 
like one who suddenly loses all memory of his past, having 
no adequate conception of the present situation and its 



*Langlois and Seignobos, Introduction to the Study of History, 
pp. 207, 208. Used by permission of Henry Holt and Company, 
publishers. 



266 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

meaning. All the great problems on which history has 
thrown light — war, slavery, democracy — would have to be 
worked out again from the beginning. 

And history is not only the social memory, but also a 
means of social introspection, self-examination, self-revela- 
tion. As each of us, by an examination of his heredity and 
his past, can find much in his ancestry, his words, thoughts, 
behavior, likes, dislikes, and half-born ideals, to indicate 
the kind of person he is and the course he should pursue, so 
can a nation, by studying its history, learn of its deeper 
nature, what its heart forces and ideals are, and of its best 
possible future. By comparing ourselves with other nations 
we learn our peculiar genius, our world mission, and the 
resources we have for achieving it, — minerals, lands, forests, 
human stock. We learn also of the necessity for conserving 
all these things. In a word, history increases our national 
and social consciousness. 

It is frequently stated that history inculcates goodness, 
and especially patriotism. In itself, as the science of the 
past, it of course has no bias in any direction. Its generali- 
zations favor some things commonly called bad, as well as 
what we commonly call good. They may even support 
what is commonly regarded as unpatriotic. The villain and 
traitor of one party or country may be the first hero of 
another. In studying history, then, we should keep our 
minds open, just as we do when we study geometry, botany, 
or physics. We should try to find out what, in the long run, 
goodness, patriotism, etc., really are; what kind of people we 
are, and what we should attempt to do in the world. 

But history cannot thus reveal our character and destiny, 
unless a knowledge of it is spread among our youth. 

Educational value of history.— Here again we must guard 



HISTORY 267 

against supposing that our subject develops any general 
" mental powers." It is commonly stated that history 
develops memory, imagination, practical judgment, love 
of truth. It does tend to educate memory for history, 
historical imagination, historical judgment, love of histori- 
cal accuracy. And these very abilities find large use in 
estimating political arguments, in the franchise, in all im- 
portant social, political, and civil relations. 

That which we wish all children to gain from history is 
an introduction to citizenship in the large sense. Not that 
we should strain the facts to support our preformed ideas of 
citizenship, but let these facts, in the minds of the pupils, 
pronounce their own judgment on present-day problems. 
That which we aim to predict and control, so far as may be, 
is the social situation. We want our young to understand 
the origin and development of this social situation, and to 
react upon it intelligently. Just as geography shows us the 
earth as the home of man, so history should tell the story of 
man's struggle to make a home on earth. How man ob- 
tained food and shelter, learned to write, read, speak various 
languages; his inventions, thoughts, morals, ceremonies; 
his industries, ways of tilling the soil, of manufacturing, of 
transporting, bartering, buying, and of securing cooperation 
in business; family life, education, division into classes; 
war, peace, government; art and science, especially as they 
have ministered to the larger human needs — these are the 
lines of interest which 'should guide us into intelligent world 
citizenship. 

The psychology of history teaching.— No matter what we 
find it desirable to teach, we are always limited and com- 
pelled by the ability of the learner. Unless the matter is 
fitted to the powers of the child our labor is in vain. We 



268 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

do not teach the history of philosophy in the primary 
school. 

The past includes the most complex events, and the deep- 
est thoughts of man. To picture it, to reconstruct it for 
one's self, demands such a wealth of images and such power 
of imagination and thought as no one can possess without 
wide experience and maturity of mind. Inability to follow a 
difficult text often leads to discouragement, verbal memoriz- 
ing, or even complete misconception. Ex-President Roose- 
velt, when a boy, imagined the "zeal" in "The zeal of thine 
house hath eaten me up," as a destructive animal, kept 
careful watch for it, and inquired about it when he went to 
church. A little miss who spoke glibly in recitation of "gen- 
eral dissatisfaction in the North," explained, when ques- 
tioned, that "General Dissatisfaction was a Southern 
general!" 

The boy may have to interpret primitive life in terms of 
camping out; court life he appreciates by means of the 
parties he has attended ; Congress is like his literary society, 
except that the program is all debates; and war may be the 
mixture of killing pigs and the death of a playmate. Even 
pictures can mean nothing unless the observer brings to 
them sufficient experience to compass their interpretation. 
Evidently we must be careful to teach that only which the 
experience of our pupils has made it possible for them to 
apperceive. 

Subject matter. — Because the child's interests and apper- 
ceptive powers enlarge gradually, the extreme proposal 
has been made of beginning with local, present-day facts, 
and proceeding backward, in the reverse of the usual time 
order, to the beginnings of all things. Each object or event 
would find its explanation in what preceded. This would 



HISTORY 269 

be the opposite of the order of all experience and nearly 
all story-telling. The ratchets on the child's apperceptive 
machinery work the other way. 

But to pull the child out of his modern settings and thrust 
him precipitately back to the beginnings of history is a 
worse extreme. We must compromise; if we think of the 
successive periods of history as so many stages in a journey, 
then it would seem wise to let the pupil proceed from the be- 
ginning of the first brief stage, the one nearest the present, 
down to his own day, retreating thereafter to the most 
ancient mile posts of successively more distant and longer 
periods, to repeat the home-coming process. Thus the 
young historian, as soon as the serious study of events in 
chronological order begins, might commence with his own 
history and that of his ancestors, passing from the study of 
his community to that of his state, his nation, the foreign 
nation most directly precedent of his own in time — England, 
for us — and finally the world. 

But previous to the serious study of events in chrono- 
logical order, mentioned above, which might begin at the 
age of twelve, in the sixth or seventh grade, much historical 
work of value can be done. The great questions in history 
are Who and What? When and Where? Why (or Whence) 
and Whither? The first two, Who and What, call for a 
personal story, but it may be detached from space and time, 
unlocated, perhaps not very well ordered, a sort of sensation 
knowledge. When and Where require the space map and 
the time map, a simple ordering of events as one would have 
perceived them had he been there. Why and Whither de- 
mand cause and consequence, relations that are thought. 
We thus have roughly indicated three stages of study, 
corresponding to the development of the learner. 



270 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Of course, our history should nowhere be a mere skeleton 
of dates or a distemper of wars. Skeletons are necessary, 
but they are not flesh and blood. Distempers seem unavoid- 
able, but they are not health. 

Nor is history simply the story of politics and govern- 
ment. If we are right in regarding history as essentially 
an account of man's attempts to make a place for himself 
on the earth, and to manage satisfactorily the affairs on 
which his happiness depends, then it should picture for us 
such things as country and climate; attempts at agriculture, 
mining, manufacturing, and commerce; the development 
of sciences, arts, languages, music; the beginnings of prop- 
erty holding, marriage, and family life; the growth of moral- 
ity, religion, philosophy, education; and especially the rela- 
tions of nations, races, and states to each other. * 

Method. — 1. In the Who-and-What stage, the primary 
period, the history story is paramount, especially the bio- 
graphic story; and among biographic stories, those of chil- 
dren are sure to be of interest to children. The location 
of the events is of no great importance, nor need the char- 
acter presented be pictured as the type, or representative, 
of any time or people. The best way to find the most in- 
teresting stories is by actual trial with the group to be 
taught. Pictures are always valuable, and dramatization 
is always in order. When the child has learned to read, he 
has unlimited access to such material. 

2. In the When-and-Where stage, which roughly speak- 
ing is the grammar-school period, it is advisable to use 
textbooks on the spiral plan, covering the history of our 
country, for instance, at least twice; first briefly, touching 

* An excellent outline of the subject matter of history is found in 
the work of Langlois and Seignobos (see References), p. 234. 



HISTORY 27 1 

the larger events only, then in fuller detail, taking care to 
avoid the death valley of verbal memorizing and repetition. 
But as no school history can be complete, it is necessary to 
make use of type studies, one carefully studied colony being 
used to interpret a similar group, one detailed battle stand- 
ing as representative of a war, etc. 

The time map and the space map become important. The 
first may be so arranged as to place each event in its proper 
decade or century, and at the same time, by means of par- 
allel columns, exhibit contemporaneous events in different 
countries. The space map should be simple, often drawn by 
the pupil. He should not see on his map the cities, bound- 
aries, and roads of modern times, unless he is studying 
modern history. 

New work should often appear in the form of a problem, 
to solve which the pupil is referred to historical sources if 
they are available. But the use of sources at this time is 
like the experiments in elementary science, providing illus- 
tration rather than proof. 

3. The Why-and- Whither period, the high school and 
college stage, may well be characterized by the increased 
study of sources and the full development of the critical 
sense in the use of them. 

Civics. — In a democratic country, where every man has a 
fraction of the ruling power, he should know how the ruling 
is done. Civics and history must be so clearly correlated as 
to form practically one branch. Civics in its development 
is an actual part of history. 

Here we can get at the sources with a vengeance, for all 
can visit town council or school board meetings, and many 
can take the trip to state or national capital. 

Participation in such activities as will help to interpret 



272 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

history and civics are extremely valuable. Perhaps this is 
the chief service of the moot trial, the mock congress, and 
the school town or city. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

i. List the dates which you think a child should memo- 
rize in studying United States history. How can a single 
date be made to stand for many events? 

2. If an author in writing a history cannot give all the 
known facts, what principles should guide him in selecting 
the facts to be presented? How do you think the newspaper 
man solves this problem in reporting? 

3. "Class politics in school or college enables one to un- 
derstand the larger political movements outside." Discuss 
this statement. 

4. Have you ever pictured some distant place to your- 
self, and afterwards found your ideas of it to be incorrect? 
How can we be sure that our mental picture of the past is 
correct? 

5. What value can you see in having pupils compare 
various ages, countries, customs, etc.? 

6. According to the Binet tests, a child should detect 
nonsense or inner contradiction in a story at the age of 
eleven. Does this have any bearing on the method of 
teaching history at that age? 

7. I propose to teach the usual facts of general history 
to a beginning class, age seven or eight, by using words of 
one syllable. State your psychological objections. 

8. Show why "battle history," that is, the history of 
wars chiefly, is to be condemned. 

9. You have some pupils who do not care for history, but 
are interested in art, inventions, factories. What should 
you do? Theoretically, can anyone be totally uninterested 
in history? 

10. Select any historical event, as the discovery of 



HISTORY 273 

America, and answer concerning it the questions, Who? 
What? When? Where? Why? Whither? Does any- 
thing remain to be told? 

11. Discuss the value of the magazine picture, post card, 
stereoscope, stereopticon, and moving picture, in the teach- 
ing of history. 

12. Do you know of any historical material, spinning 
wheels, andirons, letters, etc., in your community, that 
might be collected for a school museum? What would be 
the value of such a museum? 

13. Show the use of historical poems in teaching history. 

14. Discuss the correlation of history with drawing; 
with composition; with geography. 

15. Write an essay on "The use of the blackboard in 
history teaching." 

REFERENCES 

Barnes, Mary Sheldon, Studies in Historical Method. 

Bourne, Henry E., Teaching of History and Civics. 

Dewey, John, The School and the Child, Ch. 7. 

Gilbert, Charles B., What Children Study and Why, Ch. XXIII, 
XXIV. 

Gordy, J. P., A Broader Elementary Education, Ch. XXII. 

Hinsdale, B. A., How to Study and Teach History. 

Langlois, Ch. V., and Seignobos, Ch., Introduction to the Study 
of History. (Translated by G. G. Berry.) 



Science and Art of Teaching. — 18 



CHAPTER XXIV 

ART 

"The movement, indeed, represents in some sense a revolt against 
the hard mechanical conventional life and its insensibility to beauty 
(quite another thing to ornament). It is a protest against that so- 
called industrial progress which produces shoddy wares, the cheapness 
of which is paid for by the lives of their producers and the degradation 
of their users. It is a protest against the turning of men into machines, 
against artificial distinctions in art, and against making the immediate 
market value, or possibility of profit, the chief test of artistic merit. 
It also advances the claim of all and each to the common possession of 
beauty in things common and familiar, and would awaken the sense 
of this beauty, deadened and depressed as it now too often is, either 
on the one hand by luxurious superfluities, or on the other by the 
absence of the commonest necessities and the gnawing anxiety for the 
means of livelihood ; not to speak of the everyday uglinesses to which 
we have accustomed our eyes, confused by the flood of false taste, or 
darkened by the hurried life of modern towns in which huge aggrega- 
tions of humanity exist, equally removed from both art and nature and 
their kindly and refining influences. 

"It asserts, moreover, the value of the practice of handicraft as a 
good training for the faculties, and as a most valuable counteraction 
to that overstraining of purely mental effort under the fierce competi- 
tive conditions of the day; apart from the very wholesome and real 
pleasure in the fashioning of a thing with claims to art and beauty, the 
struggle with and triumph over the stubborn technical necessities 
which refuse to be gainsaid. And, finally, thus claiming for man this 
primitive and common delight in common things made beautiful, it 
makes, through art, the great socializer for a common and kindred life, 
for sympathetic and helpful fellowship, and demands conditions under 
which your artist and craftsman shall be free." * 

* Walter Crane, " Of the Revival of Design and Handicraft," in Arts 
and Crafts Essays. Used by permission of Longmans, Green and 
Company, publishers. 

274 



ART 



275 



Exercise. — Go to the shop and make some article. If 
possible, cooperate with several in a group project. Write 
an introspective account of your experience, and of the 
effect of the work on you. 



In the preceding three chapters we have dealt with 
science in general, and with two special kinds of science, 
mathematics and history. "A science teaches us to know 
and an art to do." We now approach that part of the pro- 
gram of studies which demands doing. 

The nature of art. — Art is essentially a process by which 
raw material is changed into a finished product; and skill, 
the original meaning of art, emphasizes the fact that the 
process is under human control. Such processes range all 
the way from the primitive chipping of a flint to the deft 
stroke of the modern master. 

The general relationship of the arts to each other can be 
shown by a diagram similar to that used in classifying the 
sciences. 

Illumination and guidance 
of thought and feeling. 



^^■^r IN 


DUSTRIAL A 


RT 


FINE ART 

Intellectual 
and estfreticj 


^\ 






Empirical art: 
"labor." 


"Skilled""\ 
labor." 


JHioughtful 
art^-as en- 
gineering/^--^ 

lotellectual. 



Blind practice. , 

Art is the hand of man, as science is his head. Science is 
man thinking; art is man doing. In the empirical stage, the 



276 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

hand acquires a certain cunning by a long process of trial 
and error, low-level learning. But this is confined mainly 
to skill in isolated acts, the shaping of the iron, the guiding 
of the saw. 

It requires directing intelligence to lay down the line for 
the saw. The engineer, with his high-level mentality, must 
not only work with scientific accuracy, but he must dream 
out the things to be, and have visions akin to those of the 
fine artist. 

There is no sharp boundary line between industrial arts, 
such as engineering, manufacturing, wood carving, and the 
fine arts, sculpture, architecture, painting, poetry, and mu- 
sic. But fine art gives free wing to imagination and emo- 
tion, and is not so much concerned with the mere making 
of a living as it is with the living of an ideal life. 

The social value of art. — To say that this is an age of 
industrialism is to call it an age of art. The industrial 
artist stands between us and the stern demands of uncom- 
promising nature. His engines lay hold of the crude rock, 
and ore, and timber, and soil, and turn out for us our houses, 
clothing, food, means of travel. Were it not for him and 
his contrivances, we should all have to enter into a face-to- 
face conflict with our formidable environment, and fight 
the fight of primitive man once more. 

We ought not to fear industrialism, business, the factory. 
We should be as thankful for all great industrial or business 
engineers as we are for the chief engineer of the Panama 
Canal. Because of the greatness of it all, there is also great 
danger, — danger of injustice, of industrial oppression, of 
losing sight of the individual workman and regarding him 
as a part of the machinery. But education should be glad 
of the chance to help establish equal rights in industry, as 



ART 277 

it is already helping to establish equal rights in politics and 
in government. 

The chief value of fine art, so far as the multitude of us 
are concerned, probably consists in expressing the great 
truths of life, its highest thoughts and deepest emotions, 
in such striking material forms that they beat in upon our 
senses from the external world; making it possible for us to 
assimilate much truth and beauty which, left to our own 
limited brain processes, we should never have spanned. 

Educational value of the arts. — A certain limited number 
of arts, commonly called the school arts — reading, writing, 
spelling, and speaking the mother tongue, together with 
the art of computation — must ever form an important part 
of early education. Their purpose and value are clear; 
they are the instrumental arts, necessary to further educa- 
tion and indispensable in practically all vocations. 

The industrial arts seem to have (i) an intellectual value, 
(2) a moral-social value, and (3) a vocational value. 

(1) As we well know, the brain cells cannot wake without 
external stimulus, and one of the best forms of stimuli is 
undoubtedly muscular activity. The hands will not work 
long before they call upon the head to direct them, think 
for them. In the old-fashioned school there was too much of 
the thro wing-in process, too much impression, too little 
expression. While we measure men by their productivity, 
their output, what they can actually do, we have been grad- 
ing children by what they could take in. It has been shown 
that development is really quickened by devoting a part 
of the school time to expressive art; making an object 
insures better knowledge of it. In addition, an apperceptive 
basis is acquired for intelligent appreciation of the arts and 
industries of the world. 



278 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

(2) Perhaps the contribution of craftsmanship to ethical 
culture is commonly overstated. Sawing a board off 
" square" need not beget love for the " square deal." But 
if the nations that are skilled in arts and crafts are most 
highly moral, as they are said to be, and if, as statistics 
show, comparatively few state's prisoners have ever learned 
a trade, handwork and moral behavior may have some vital 
relation. 

There is little doubt that touching elbows at the work- 
bench engenders a fellow feeling which makes against cleav- 
age into antagonistic social strata, when school days are 
over. The school is partly an effect, but very largely a 
cause, of the social life that surrounds it. Whatever is 
wanting to-day in the educational ideal will be missed to- 
morrow in the social and civic ideals of the people. If labor 
is to be respected in society, it must be respected in the 
school. If capital and labor are ever to join hands for the 
common good, they should become fast friends before their 
school- days are over. To respect labor one must under- 
stand it; to understand it he himself must work. Thus 
does one acquire sympathy with the whole great, struggling, 
misunderstood industrial world. The future employer may 
well learn the workman's viewpoint by being a workman; 
and the laborer feels drawn to such an employer. 

(3) One great difficulty with our schools is that we have 
been so intent on securing in them the flower of civilization 
that we have neglected the root. We have been so intent 
on culture that we have forgotten vocation. The child 
should learn from his experience in school that earth is the 
great producer and that industry is the great transformer; 
he must not be allowed to regard the school as an avenue 
to wealth without work. 



ART 279 

There is a foolish fear abroad that culture may be passed 
by in the quick march for vocation, the old idea being that 
we must proceed through culture to vocation. The new 
education sees that in the majority of cases we must find 
culture through vocation or never find it at all. There is 
also frequent warning that the man must not be submerged 
beneath his work. It is exactly in the prevention of this 
catastrophe that the tendency toward industrial training 
finds its highest vindication. The submerged man develops 
typically from a boy who, tired out with the graces of cul- 
ture, leaves school early and goes to work without training. 

We must consider the submerged woman also. Ninety 
per cent of our girls become home makers, and it is not 
pessimistic, but truthful, to say that many of them are 
leading lives of undue gayety before marriage which result 
in undue anxiety after marriage; having been carefully 
shielded from all " kitchen work," they discover, with pain, 
that parlor adornments will not suffice. Industrial art, 
especially domestic art, not only enables our girls to appre- 
ciate much in history and in present social conditions, but 
prevents the somber disenchantment and distress which 
housekeeping brings to the uninitiated, insures neat cloth- 
ing for the household and a button for every buttonhole, 
augurs good meals, good digestion, good health. Industrial 
art provides the material basis for an ideal home. 

Of course, not all men will find their vocation in industry 
nor all women in home making. But that legions would be 
thus benefited by the industrial arts we cannot doubt.* 

* The fine arts, too, have (1) an intellectual-emotional value, in 
their expression of great thoughts and feelings in simple forms that 
appeal to the senses, and in their development of artistic critical 
power and an appreciation of pure beauty; (2) a moral-social power, as 
exemplified in folk and national songs, and in the community feeling 



280 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Subject matter. — In determining which of the industrial 
arts we shall teach, and to what extent, two extremes must 
be avoided: (i) that of making all children practice all 
arts, and (2) that of permitting no child to acquire any 
industrial art as a part of his regular education. 

(1) No educational blunder is more common, or more 
productive of harm, than the assumption that all children 
are born similar and equal, or at least, that all should have 
the same training. It seems to be quite commonly assumed 
that if we provide work in clay, leather, brass, wood, and 
iron for the grammar school, all grammar school pupils must 
become proficient in all the work provided. We cannot too 
often reflect that diagnosis should precede prescription: our 
first duty, when a child comes to us for an education, is not 
to take him for granted and proceed with the education, but 
to find out what kind of child he is. The child who shows a 
strong liking for the mechanic arts, with little ability for 
anything else, may well spend the major part of his time 
trying himself out on various kinds of materials, processes, 
and machines. 

On the other hand the brain-blest boy, who needs little 
external stimulus to set his subjective machinery to work, 
may safely devote himself to the running of his mental 
mechanism, and spend a comparatively small amount of 
time on any other. 

The school must be as broad in its work as is the world 
it serves, providing a multitude of activities for a multitude 
of talents. This is costly, but it means human efficiency and 
attainment, and nothing is costly when weighed against that. 

engendered by choral singing; (3) a vocational value. The latter is 
important, for although few devote themselves permanently to the 
fine arts, the influence of these devotees on the lives of the more 
numerous common people is often tremendous, 



ART 281 

(2) The second extreme consists in sharply separating all 
industrial education from the established general, liberal 
or cultural education. In such a case, if the boy needs most 
an education in mechanics, he must leave school, so to 
speak, to get it. It is futile to postpone this for years in the 
hope of compelling him to absorb culture first; he will end 
by getting neither. The boy may sometimes go to the ma- 
chine in the shop instead of having the machine brought 
to him in the school, but there must be one unified school 
system, large enough to include various kinds of industrial 
training as a part of the regular education of those who can 
most profit by it, and offered, not necessarily at any one 
time for all, but open to each individual just when he per- 
sonally can derive the greatest benefit from it. 

Art, skillful doing of some kind, according to the nature of 
the pupil, should find a place from the very beginning of 
school life. But it may have to be as indefinite in our cur- 
riculums as nature study and elementary science are. We 
may lay it down as a general principle that every study 
should have its art side, its active phase, for the sake of 
expression and interpretation. In story study we have 
dramatization; in geography, mapping and modeling; in 
history, the reproduction of primitive implements and in- 
dustries. Music, drawing, and manual training can be 
correlated with every sort of undertaking. But the voca- 
tional trend of each pupil, the line of greatest interest and 
ability, whether in agriculture, or working in wood or iron, 
should determine which art shall be pursued seriously and 
at length for its own sake. 

Method. — As we cannot consider the numerous arts in- 
dividually here, it must suffice to call attention to the laws 
of learning, previously laid down. 



282 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

We must first of all make clear our aim, determine just 
what is the act to be learned, and whether it shall be ren- 
dered fully automatic, or habitual, or simply be made more 
definite and understandable by centering attention upon it 
for a time. But we must consider the learner also, as well 
as the process to be learned, and decide whether he can 
profit most by low-, mid-, or high-level learning. We must 
all, to some extent, learn to do by doing; but the future 
engineer must also be able to learn to do by learning how to 
do, — must be able to learn from the brain down as well as 
from the hand up. 

The best motive is natural interest, at first what might 
almost be called a vocational instinct, perhaps dimly felt, 
later becoming more and more consciously a life-career 
motive. But as sensible teachers we must be content with 
and appeal to a motive such as the learner can appreciate, 
be it play with the finished toy at the end of the hour, or 
the "job" at the end of the year, or a joyous life based on 
the ability to render artistic service. 

If then we make clear to the learner just what he is to 
do, — especially by doing it ourselves; if we help him to keep 
himself in good condition of nerve and muscle, and applied 
to his task ; if we support his self-confidence and interest by 
cheering him over the plateaus of slow and grinding prog- 
ress, we fix the essential conditions of successful method. 
The technique must depend on the nature of the particular 
undertaking; but sympathy, imitation, and suggestion are 
of strong value in teaching technique of whatever kind.* 

* With regard to the fine arts, experimental pedagogy contributes 
some interesting facts: that the younger the child, the less stable is he 
in his emotional life, and the more suggestible; that girls have the 
higher appreciation for color, boys for form; that the younger the 
child the less critically he judges a picture as a picture, passing at once 



ART 283 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. Should manual training be continued throughout the 
usual college course? Why? 

2. Name some arts that would fall into each of the divi- 
sions given in the classification of the arts. 

3. Write on "The place of pictures in my education," 
giving your earliest memories of pictures, etc., and estimat- 
ing their influence on your development. 

4. Do you think the old-fashioned school, in which labor 
found little place, had anything to do with the many present 
conflicts between labor and capital? 

5. If one has to miss either culture (liberal education) 
or vocation, which should he make sure of? 

6. Give some reasons why the mistress in the parlor and 
the maid in the kitchen have so many misunderstandings 
and disagreements. 

7. Criticize these statements: "We must not teach trades 
to young boys, for they are not old enough to choose their 
life work." "The boy who can learn a trade in the gram- 
mar school will never seek the liberal culture of the high 
school." "There is no room for industrial arts: our pro- 
grams of study are already overloaded." 

8. Should "the boy" be kept on the farm? Or should 
some boys (who by nature take to farming) stay on the 
farm, while others leave it to pursue their vocations else- 
where? Should agriculture be taught in rural schools with 
the express purpose of keeping boys on the farm? 

9. Should we allow anyone to learn a trade without 
taking a large amount of cultural work in connection with it? 
Should we permit a terrier to chase rats before he has 



to its meaning; that young children (up to about eight years) tend to 
omit the decorative and include the utilitarian in their drawing; and 
that discrimination of melody and rhythm, and emotional apprecia- 
tion of both, develop markedly at about the age of nine, rhythm being 
the more highly appreciated and better remembered. (See Robert R. 
Rusk's Introduction to Experimental Education, Ch. IX.) 



284 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

learned, like the St, Bernard, to rescue lost travelers? 
Should we permit a cobbler to mend our shoes before we 
have tested him on writing sonnets? 

10. Work out in detail some possible correlations of 
manual training with other branches of study. 

REFERENCES 

Carlton, Frank Tracy, Education and Industrial Evolution. 

Dopp, Katharine Elizabeth, The Place of Industries in Ele- 
mentary Education. 

Griggs, Edward Howard, The Philosophy of Art. 

Ham, Charles H., Mind and Hand. 

Hanus, Paul H., Beginnings in Industrial Education. 

O'Shea, M. V., Every-day Problems in Teaching, Chs. VI, VII. 

Ware, Fabian, Educational Foundations of Trade and Indus- 
try. 

Arts and Crafts Essays, by Members of the Arts and Crafts 
Society. 



CHAPTER XXV 

LANGUAGE 

" Never, until the idea that composition is a 'study' to be learned 
from a book is banished from the school, will children be taught to 
write properly. Among the severest criticisms made upon the com- 
mon school are these: 'The reading and spelling are poor/ 'The me- 
chanical work in arithmetic is laborious and inaccurate,' 'The com- 
position is bad'; and these are faults that can be corrected only 
through practice. There can be no greater mistake in relation to the 
first stages of school education than that the rationale of a process is 
immediately valuable. A painter or musician knows his technical 
rules and his science, but neither his technical rules nor his science can 
take the place of technique or execution. It is by no means always 
true that a mathematician is 'good in figures'; on the other hand, he is 
often poor. It is, therefore, extremely important that the teacher 
should clearly see whether the end to which a school exercise looks is 
skill or knowledge — practical power or intellectual power." * 

Exercise. — A teacher attempts to teach some boys to 
skate, and also to use their mother tongue well. On the ice, 
they proceed at once to copious practice under coaching, 
but without rules, and soon become proficient; in the 
schoolroom, they first have many language rules and gram- 
matical principles, followed by scanty practice and medio- 
cre success. Comment on the situation, comparing (a) the 
previous experience of the pupils, (b) the nature of the task 
and the boys' probable interest in it, and (c) the method 
used. Could the subject matter of language be made as 
interesting as skating? Would the same subject matter 
be equally interesting to all pupils? What can be done 
about it? 

* B. A. Hinsdale, Teaching the Language Arts. Used by permission 
of D. Appleton and Company, publishers. 

285 



286 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Nature of language. — We have discussed science and art, 
with special attention to two kinds of science, mathematics 
and history. There remains an art which, because it serves 
all and must be taught to all, deserves separate treatment: 
it is the art of language. 

Of course there is a science of language — it has several 
sciences, of which grammar is a well-known example. But 
grammar did not make language: the language came first, 
the grammar afterward; the art leading, the science follow- 
ing. And so should it be in the teaching of language. 

Social value. — Let language perish, and we should either 
re-invent it or herd with the brutes. Printing has well been 
called the art preservative of all other arts. Language in 
the broad sense, communication of some kind, is certainly 
an indispensable tool in all our progress. 

Words are also an aid to thinking, and hence to progress. 
Thinking without words is about such an undertaking as 
difficult mathematics would be for most of us without pen- 
cil and paper, or even a stick and a sand plot. A word is a 
kind of signpost which marks a place on our mental map. * 

Finally, a large part of the social value of language con- 
sists in making us social. All that we are or can hope to be, 
we owe to the fact that our primitive fathers loved to get 
together and talk ! By such social communication we come 
to understand each other, sympathize, imitate, emulate, 
become socially efficient. We can see this in the classroom, 
clubroom, literary society, even in the street. Nations, too, 
can understand each other better when each learns the 
other's language. 



* How much experience can be compressed into a single word, we 
can see from the dictionary and from such books as Trench's Study of 
Words. 



LANGUAGE 287 

Language as educational material.— Language has the 
same value in school that it has outside. (1) It enables us 
to get and to give ideas, (2) it is a good tool for the thinker, 
and (3) its practice, since it always involves at least two 
persons, is essentially a social practice. 

But we must never forget that words cannot take the 
place of things.* They are like paper money, of no value 
except as they stand for something beyond themselves. 
The younger the child the more necessary it is that per- 
ceptive experience of objects shall precede the word used to 
name that experience. The birth (of the experience) must 
precede the christening. 

Nor can words take the place of ideas. We cannot give 
a man big thoughts by teaching him big words, nor make 
him wise by teaching him many languages. As a great 
language never made a great nation, but great nations have 
felt the need of and made great languages, so language will 
not form a great soul, but a great soul requires high linguis- 
tic power to express itself. To think that language makes 
the man is about as incorrect as to think that clothes make 
the man. 

Language, then, is an instrument. Its use is an art. 
One who has learned it is like one who has learned to strike 
all the typewriter keys; he may or may not have ideas to 
express. 

To make language the core of all curriculums, as we are 
often urged to do, would be, for many children, like sub- 
stituting the reflection for the real object. Each child's 
curriculum must have its own vocational core, about which 
all else is organized. But we must remember in every case 
that some language is necessary, whatever the vocation. 

* See page 69. 



288 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Subject matter.— In order to make use of language, we 
must be able (i) to tell what words mean, and (2) to use 
words to tell what we mean. In the first case we are either 
reading or listening to words; in the second, we are speaking 
or writing words. To know language then, one must know 
" words, words, words," and how words go together. 

First and foremost a child must learn to listen and to 
talk. Talking is learned largely by listening, partly by prac- 
tice. Unfortunately, in many cases the children are turned 
over to us with bad language habits already formed by home 
and street. But at any rate the teacher's work begins with 
the babble of the first days at school. We must arrange such 
rousing experiences as will spontaneously let loose a medley 
of tongues, and we must bestow high praise on such primi- 
tive elocution as we can challenge forth. To check the chil- 
dren with too much correctness at this stage may mean 
permanent discouragement. And as the world talks more 
than it writes, so must our language work, from first to last, 
be mainly oral. We teachers are too much afraid of having 
a social good time with our pupils. 

It is difficult to talk while listening to some one else; 
yet this is what the pupil must do when he reads, except 
that he listens with his eyes, so to speak. That is, he must 
at the same time perceive words and pronounce words, and 
the eye must run ahead of the tongue, the perceiving ahead 
of the pronouncing. He must learn to gather words by the 
eye-full, almost automatically, so that he can fix his mind 
on expression. 

To some extent, this kind of double process runs through 
all language work. In conversation, one must listen and at 
the same time think of a reply. In writing, one's thoughts 
should speed on in advance of pen or typewriter. In public 



LANGUAGE 289 

speaking, one must learn how to pronounce a phrase or 
sentence while sending the mind on to prepare the next for 
utterance. 

It is plain that in forming these difficult, double habits, 
the essential is practice. There is no secret short cut; here 
we learn to do by doing. 

We can now fix the place of English grammar. It has 
about the same value as a difficult Manual of Skating 
would have for the boy on the ice pond, or a prosy and pic- 
tureless manual of swimming for the one in the water. Such 
high-level learning is out of place with young pupils. It 
should be introduced whenever the pupil develops high- 
level language ability and shows an interest in the subject. 
For some children this may be in the grammar school; for 
others, in the high school; for still others, never. Where 
all pupils are required to take it at an early age, most of 
them should be allowed to pass it with very moderate at- 
tainments. 

Literature. — One essential thing to learn here is that 
literature cannot take the place of life. We are in danger of 
supposing, when we have taught the child to read, that all 
life and experience are now open to him. But the joys and 
sorrows of humanity mean nothing before one has had joys 
and sorrows of his own. We must interpret literature 
through life before we can interpret life through literature. 

Lessons in literature (when one has gained experience 
enough to interpret them) are chiefly appreciation lessons. 
They convey some information, arouse some thought, and 
encourage skill in expression; but their highest value lies 
in the fact that they are verbal moving-picture shows. If 
the author knows life, his pictures are true to life; they teach 
us what happens, in the long run, to the fool, the knave, 

Science and Art of Teaching. — 19 



290 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

the proud, the wise, the righteous. They show us how 
marriage and other adventures turn out. They help us to 
appreciate life situations, and to decide which is to be our 
character, and how we shall play our part. 

Our children need literature in abundance, — such litera- 
ture as they can appreciate. It is fortunate if the pupil can 
be permitted to follow his own choice, to show us, by his 
literary taste, and by his choice of selections to memorize, 
what kind of soul he has. If the children are brought into 
contact with such literature as answers to their individual 
brain-set, if it is the literature itself and not a mere study 
about literature, and if they are given such aid as they need 
to interpret the difficult portions, we have satisfied the es- 
sential conditions. 

Method.— If there is anything the discoursing public, 
young and old, needs to realize, it is that when words are 
used they should be used for something. Woodrow Wilson 
is to be commended for his college practice of refusing to 
take part in a debate unless he could argue with conviction. 
His aim was not merely to appear before an audience, but 
to convince. Our schools need less of the perfunctory prac- 
tice of language, and more of the sincere and purposeful 
effort which grows naturally from life itself. Help the 
pupil to make clear his purpose then, whether to "tell 
something" or "make one feel" so and so, or "get one to 
do" thus and so. 

Our next great dictum, perhaps first in importance, is to 
keep life ahead of language. Our stilted (and borrowed) 
compositions, declamations beyond the comprehension of 
the declaimer, and school readers whose literature is years 
beyond the range of the pupil are conspicuous examples of 
our failure at this point. Out of the abundance of the heart 



LANGUAGE 291 

the mouth should speak, and not alone from the pages of an 
encyclopedia, or from a brain which has been mechanically 
impressed into service as sort of phonograph record. Where- 
ever there is a real spring, it will find its way out. Where- 
ever there is abundant life, the teacher could not suppress 
it if she would: the chief need is for direction and control. 
This wealth of personal thought and feeling is just as neces- 
sary for reading and interpretation as for composition and 
public speaking. 

Granted the presence of something to say or to be read, 
and a clear conception of its nature and purpose, what more 
is necessary? The essentials seem to be: (1) repeated con- 
tact with appropriate models; (2) imitation of such models; 
(3) comparison, criticism, and repeated effort; (4) the grad- 
ual acquisition of the power and habit of self-criticism. 

(1) The poet needs to read many poems of the kind he 
writes; the orator should read and listen to many orations. 
As the teacher is "the way" by which the child comes into 
contact with the world, she must procure these models. 
Woe to the pupils if their teacher has never really learned 
to read and write ! She must rely on visitors, on literature, 
on the phonograph, — the better kind, — and on the best 
artists among her pupils. 

(2) Franklin, by his method of learning to read and write 
good English, has taught us the value of imitation. One 
may not only be ignorant of the science of his art : he may 
not even know its verbal rules. A four-year-old brought 
up in an environment of good language often speaks better 
English than a college graduate whose youthful tongue 
imitated bad models. In the early stages of the art, at least, 
we should acquire skill in language as we acquire skill in a 
game or sport. 



292 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

(3) Imitation usually means mid-level learning; "com- 
parison" and " criticism" of a very useful but not highly 
analytic kind may occur on the same level. The child can 
usually be made to feel where his fault is, even when he is 
unable to discern clearly just what is the matter. But it 
is essential to learn in some way which side of the mark the 
stray bullets are going, if we are ever to learn to shoot 
straight. 

(4) Self-criticism is likely to involve an intellectual, 
analytical, high-level activity. We should encourage it 
wherever we find capacity for it, and lead up to some 
knowledge of the science of language. Here we enter the 
expert stage. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. Look up, in Franklin's Autobiography, his method of 
learning to use good English, and outline the essential steps. 

2. Make a list of the chief acts of skill which you have 
acquired. What has been the general process? 

3. We often quote the dictionary as authority: what 
authority lies back of the dictionary? What is the ultimate 
source of authority in the use of language? 

4. Name some of the advantages that would follow if we 
could have but one letter for each sound and one sound for 
each letter. Is such an ideal worth working for? 

5. Some teachers of foreign language compel their pupils 
to perform each act, so far as possible, while saying the 
words descriptive of it. Comment on the practice. Should 
you use this method in teaching the mother tongue? Why? 

6. Discuss the topic, "Kindergarten versus home, as an 
aid to the use of correct English." 

7. A lecture on "The nature of our number system" is 
delivered in flowery style, ornamented with poetic quota- 



LANGUAGE 293 

tions, and graced with dramatic climax and sweeping 
gestures: just what, if anything, is wrong? 

8. Watch yourself carefully for a time and find how often 
you catch yourself imitating another's language. When 
you hear a striking phrase, are you likely to let it die, or 
try its effect soon on some one else? 

9. Try to account psychologically for the spread and 
popularity of slang. 

10. If we all "know better" than to use poor English, 
having studied grammar, why do we not always do better? 

n. Write an introspective account of "How I learned to 
read." Mention any improvements which you think could 
have been made on the method. 

12. Can you speak or read readily any foreign language 
you have learned? Comment on this. 

13. Show points of similarity between your learning to 
read a foreign language, and a child's learning to read Eng- 
lish. What help does the memory of your own difficulties 
give you in understanding those of the child? 

REFERENCES 

Carpenter, Baker and Scott, Teaching of English. 

Chubb, Percival, Teaching of English. 

Hinsdale, B. A., Teaching the Language Arts. 

La Rue, Daniel Wolford, " Philosophy of the Elementary 
Language Course," Education, Vol. XXX, pp. 74-83. 

O'Shea, M. V., Every -day Problems in Teaching, Ch. VIII. 

Palmer, George Herbert, Self-cultivation in English. 

Rusk, Robert R., Introduction to Experimental Education, 
Chs. XIV-XVI. 

Tompkins, Arnold, Science of Discourse. 



PART FIVE 

EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE AS INFLU- 
ENCED BY THE EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 



CHAPTER XXVI 

MORAL EDUCATION 

"A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face; a beautiful be- 
havior is better than a beautiful form : it gives a higher pleasure than 
statues or pictures; it is the finest of the fine arts. A man is but a little 
thing in the midst of the objects of nature, yet by the moral quality 
radiating from his countenance, he may abolish all considerations of 
magnitude, and in his manners equal the majesty of the world." * 

Exercise. — Recall vividly your conduct in the elemen- 
tary school. What were the chief influences that kept you 
good? What led you to do your bad deeds? 

Do you think there can be a science of human conduct? 
An art? Why? 

We have found (Chapter IV) three kinds of education, 
physical, moral, and vocational. The first has been treated 
(Chapter V). In this closing part of our study, we shall 
consider the remaining two. 

Conduct should have a scientific basis. — This much 
seems certain: we live in a very substantial, orderly world, 
where facts are facts, and where things happen according 
to law. If our behavior is not built, from the foundation up, 
squarely on these facts and laws, then there is something 
the matter with the behavior. There is no special conceal- 
ment or special revelation in nature, concerning matters 
of human conduct ; they are just as open and just as hidden 

* Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essay on Manners. Used by permission 
of Houghton Mifflin Company, publishers. 

2 97 



298 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

as the affairs of psychology, of sociology, of economics, or of 
any other undertaking that involves human nature. This 
means that ethics is a possible science. But it is still in a 
very crude state of development. 

If we are right in coupling science and conduct in this 
way, it will pay us to reflect at this point on the following 
statements: 

1. Scientific method should be followed in the teaching of 
morality. If morality cannot be taught at all, then no 
method is as good as any method; but if it can, we should 
have a pedagogy of morality as we have a pedagogy of 
arithmetic and of manual training. Perhaps we rely too 
much on moral miracles, too little on the slow, plain, old- 
fashioned, laborious methods which have proved themselves 
in other directions by winning for us our greatest triumphs. 
No get-good-quick method that will answer for all has ever 
been discovered. 

2. Behavior = organism + stimulus. We never doubt 
this when the organism is a plant or a very low animal such 
as an oyster, perhaps not even in the case of a year-old 
infant. The baby is not to blame; he "cannot help " getting 
angry when something hurts him. But the behavior of the 
child soon becomes so complex that we accuse him of having 
a "will of his own." Whoever makes such a charge should 
be compelled to prove it. Human nature, like the world 
outside, is governed by laws. If we know these laws, if we 
are thoroughly familiar with the "make-up" of any given 
individual, we can choose and apply to him just the right 
stimulus to bring forth any reaction that we desire, and of 
which he is capable. Solomon knew that the real mother 
would protest against the severing of her babe. 

At first, every strong stimulus starts an impulse that 



MORAL EDUCATION 2QQ 

goes over into action on the spot, as the puppy chases the 
cat and the baby eats jam, at sight. But experience usually 
develops inhibitors to stop our reckless impulses; when the 
puppy has felt the claws of the cat and the baby has made 
himself sick, both learn self-restraint. But some persons 
cannot develop such inhibitors. "Such a person may have 
perfect 'society manners,' but on occasion will take from 
shops articles for which she has no need; or another is 
regarded as a valuable member of his community, a leading 
member of the bar, but about once a year consumes a nearly 
lethal quantity of alcoholic drinks; or another is an agree- 
able, generous, affectionate young fellow who, about once 
a month, secretly sets fire to buildings in order to feed an 
irresistible love of the excitement produced by the flames." * 

3. The organism is largely determined by heredity. Here, 
again, is a truth which we are willing to admit as applicable 
to plants and lower animals, and which doubtless holds 
when applied to human beings also. 

"Even in numerous elements of mood and behavior the 
influence of the hereditary make-up is striking. One person 
is prevailingly elated, jovial, irrepressible; another quiet, 
depressed, melancholic; another still, alternates in these 
moods, and when elated he believes he can do anything, but 
when depressed a sense of helplessness overpowers him. 
Again, one person is original and independent while another 
is always imitative. Here is a famous lecturer who has 
quelled mobs with his eloquence but who is prevailingly 
diffident; while there is a woman who has lived always in 
the backwoods and is as forward as a Canada jay. Sin- 
cerity or insincerity, generosity or stinginess, gregariousness 

* C. B. Davenport. Used by permission of the Popular Science 
Monthly. 



300 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

or exclusiveness, truthfulness or untruthfulness, — all are 
qualities whose presence or absence is determined largely 
by the factor of heredity.* 

4. The organism is highly individuated. Our natures are 
as different as our figures and faces. Personality is almost 
infinitely various; and hence the surest way to be morally 
unfair is to "treat all just alike." One child needs the 
stimulus of scolding or whipping and is improved by it; 
another who commits the "same" offense, does not need 
such punishment and would be injured by it. Some boys 
who steal should be placed in a reform school; others should 
be furnished the breakfast they could not obtain before they 
left home in the morning. 

5. The organism should be maintained in fit condition. 
Ordinary observation shows us that much bad conduct is 
directly traceable to poor food, bad air, fatigue, lack of 
sleep, indigestion or other disease. It is quite compatible 
with the doctrine of heredity that we should behave differ- 
ently under different physical conditions. The starved and 
jaded horse may balk; rested and well fed, he may exert 
himself without remonstrance. 

On the other hand, much avoidable badness results from 
the accumulation of an overplus of nervous energy. The 
pranks of overfed horses and of the idle rich are illustrative 
of this. The old prayer holds good of nervous energy as 
well as of economic wealth: "Give me neither poverty nor 
riches." 

6. Stimuli must be adapted to individuals. We load the 
machine according to the strain it will stand; we should 
show equally good sense in dealing with fellow creatures. 
The child with an inheritance of bad temper must not be 

* C. B. Davenport. See footnote to previous quotation. 



MORAL EDUCATION 301 

teased. The weakling in arithmetic must be forgiven his 
weakness and permitted to "pass " if he would be better off, 
on the whole, in the next grade. The remark which one 
friend takes graciously offends another deeply; we should 
act accordingly. It should be to us one of the finest adapta- 
tions of moral economy thus to supplement our mutual 
strengths and weaknesses. 

7. Society should not expect the same maximum of morality 
from all. This is evident if the preceding statements are 
true. There are born line artists in conduct as there are in 
music and painting. We cannot hope to make all pupils 
expert readers, carpenters, or spellers. Much less can we 
hope to make them all artists in fine living. We must 
content ourselves in many cases with passing morality. 
11 From each according to his powers, to each according to 
his needs," is an excellent social-moral precept. 

Moreover, this hereditary moral nature and naturally 
fine conduct should be the first qualification of every 
teacher. She should be a highly trained and self-disciplined 
specialist in the intricate technique of right living. We 
cannot sacrifice this in the teaching craft, not even for the 
intellect of a genius. 

Aim of moral education. — Having reminded ourselves 
that we must proceed scientifically here as elsewhere, and 
not depend on miracles in morals any more than we do in 
physics, and having examined some of the limitations which 
well-established facts impose upon us, we may now consider 
more minutely the purpose we may reasonably hope to 
achieve, preparatory to a choice of methods to accom- 
plish it. 

Our general aim is to make people good and to secure the 
performance of good acts. 



302 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

What constitutes the good? — An act must be judged by 
its results; a person by his intention in any particular case. 
If I try to shoot an upright man, but accidentally kill his 
murderous enemy who was about to strike him down, I 
am bad, but my act is good. 

But even persons must be judged in the long run by the 
results of their lives. The grinning fool and the shrewd 
rascal are different, but both "bad," since their presence is 
a harm to society. Both should be " punished," that is, 
subjected to stimuli that will call out the best reaction each 
is capable of. Probably the fool should be kept in gentle 
restraint until his useless life goes out; the rascal, according 
to his kind, should be subjected to simple kindness, or an 
education, or stripes, or imprisonment. 

Are we to teach a science or an art?— In teaching our pu- 
pils to act with good intention always, and up to the level 
of their intelligence, are we to teach a science or an art? 
Both, to advanced pupils; but to the immature, the art 
only. Shall we use a textbook, commit rules and principles? 
Certainly nothing more than an ethical storybook for the 
young; it is almost as useless to teach them morals by 
catechism and preachment as it would be to teach manual 
training or writing in that way. Practice is the essential. 
But with those mature students who give promise of being 
specialists in fine conduct, exhaust the science; there is 
all too little of it. An elective in high-school ethics is exactly 
in place. Here, as always, we must choose low-level or mid- 
level or high-level learning, as best suited to the learner. 

Kinds of moral lesson. — We have the same kinds of 
lesson here as in other subjects, lessons for information, 
thought, skill, and appreciation. The pupil must have a 
certain amount of information, "know enough to be good"; 



MORAL EDUCATION 303 

but beyond this, cramming facts will no more save him in 
morals than in music. The thought lesson is of high value 
when the pupil is ready for it. Morality, in the early life 
of the child, may stand on mere authority, but it cannot do 
so permanently. We teach the pupil to ask "Why?" in 
everything else; we should do so in matters of conduct. 
Would that we could induce all to take reason, finally, as 
the guide in life! 

The moral appreciation lesson is appropriate at all ages, 
and serves to fix a brain-set favorable to the moral life; 
contemplation and participation are the watchwords. But 
most teaching of morality consists in the inculcation of 
something like acts of skill, that is, habits; for the good life 
is composed largely of the repeated performances of particu- 
lar good acts, well drilled in. We teach lessons in morals, 
then, just as we teach similar lessons in other branches. 

Habit-building. — Professor James has made classic the 
laws of habit formation. They are: 

1. Start strongly. 

2. Permit no exceptions at first. 

3. Use every opportunity for practice. 

If we cannot make a clear leap from the old practice to the 
new habit, we must take as long a step in that direction as 
we are likely to achieve without backsliding. We must take 
a running start, so to speak, break with the old, and let it 
be known abroad that we are lined up with the new. But 
an exception in the beginning lets the nervous system slip 
back into its old adjustments. We must do or die, and that 
right early. And we must follow up our advantage with 
persistent practice, until it would be harder to go back to 
the old, neglected, obstructed way than to follow the new 
and open one. Our brain paths have taken a new direction. 



304 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

As teachers, we must consider that few of our pupils can 
take this dashing initiative and form or reform themselves; 
they tend rather to respond, without much deliberation, to 
the suggestions of associates, especially superiors. It is 
all-important, in teaching an act of mental or muscular skill, 
that the teacher be able herself to perform it in true pattern 
style. Here is one of the reasons why the teacher's person- 
ality is the strongest (or weakest) moral influence in the 
school. If we want to make our pupils moral, we should do 
just as a great reformer does with the common people, min- 
gle freely and tolerantly with them, but without sacrificing 
our ideals to their weaknesses. The teacher should exem- 
plify strong, intelligent, gracious, persistent goodness. 

Reformation. — A suggestion only can be offered here. 
An individual can be reformed by mid-level or high-level 
methods. The mid-level procedure cannot depend on the 
intelligent cooperation of the subject, but must work en- 
tirely from without, somewhat as one would train an animal. 
The evil practice, like an undesirable feeling, can be elimi- 
nated by (i) crushing it out, punishing it away by some 
kind of suffering associated directly with the offensive con- 
duct; or (2) by keeping the attention elsewhere until the 
old habit dies out, — best of all, by replacing the bad act 
with a related good one. Let the boy who carves desk or 
walls work in the manual-training shop. The younger, 
or rather the more stupid the child, the more necessary is 
corporal punishment of some kind; the higher the develop- 
ment, the more can other deterrents be used. It is es- 
pecially desirable to substitute moral flowers for weeds, 
good spirits for bad. To keep the soul empty of all evil, 
fill it with all good. 

Where high-level methods can be used, the victory is eas- 



MORAL EDUCATION 305 

ier. Even an unconscious bad practice may be raised to the 
level of consciousness and killed off by self-injunction. Pyle 
gives a case of a girl who thus broke herself of biting her 
lips, a habit that had existed from childhood. This was 
accomplished by consciously biting her lips and saying, 
"Now I must not bite my lips." * 

Complete high-level reformation would involve (1) recog- 
nition of the evil committed, (2) the careful determination 
of what should and shall be done under such circumstances, 
and (3) the priming and setting of the mind in such a way 
as to make use of the right response the next time such a 
situation is confronted. Rugh offers the excellent sugges- 
tion that we require pupils under discipline to state these 
three points on paper, f 

Community influence of the school. — The time will come 
when school buildings will be deliberately planned for 
community use and the teachers and other workers con- 
sciously organized for community service. The school 
must keep in touch morally with the adolescents who go out 
from it, often at the most critical age. The most important 
of all continuation schools is the school of morality. This 
moralizing influence must enter into the lives of adults in 
every effective way. But the time has come when we must 
stop bringing the duties and privileges of the home into the 
schoolroom; we must henceforth aim to build up good 
homes at home. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. Discuss the respective responsibilities of home and 
school in the teaching of morality. 

* William Henry Pyle, Educational Psychology (191 1), p. 157. 
f Charles Edward Rugh, Moral Training in the Public Schools, 
pp. 47-49- 

Science and Art of Teaching — 20 



306 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

2. Write a brief account of your moral development, or 
some phase of it. 

3. Outline an essay on "The school as a moral labora- 
tory," in which good and bad are discovered and tried out 
by actual experience. 

4. Does religion seem to you to be essential to morality? 
Why cannot the school teach religion? 

5. Show that ethics is an approximate science. 

6. Why should we not give to all the same punishment 
for "the same" offense? 

7. What are the conditions that have led you to do your 
worst deeds? How can you guard against them? 

8. Discuss the moral aspect of coeducation. 

9. Do you think the team work, self-subordination, etc., 
of games and debates, are carried over to other activities? 
Give reasons. 

10. Is there any such thing as formal discipline in the 
teaching of conduct? Prove your answer. 

REFERENCES 

Davenport, C. B., " Heredity, Culpability, Praiseworthiness, 
Punishment and Reward; " Popular Science Monthly, July, 19 13. 

Gould, F. J., Moral Education. 

Hanus, Paul H., Beginnings in Industrial Education, Ch. VII. 
La Rue, Daniel Wolford, " The Church and the Public School; " 
Educational Review, Vol. 37, No. 5. 

Spiller, Gustav, Report on Moral Instruction and on Moral 
Training in the Schools of Eighteen Countries. 

Moral Training in the Public Schools, California Prize Essays. 

Papers on Moral Education, International Moral Education 
Congress. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

"Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the call. There is 
one direction in which all space is open to him. He has faculties 
silently inviting him thither to endless exertion. He is like a ship in a 
river; he runs against obstructions on every side but one; on that side, 
all obstruction is taken away, and he sweeps serenely over God's 
depths into an infinite sea. This talent and this call depend on his 
organization, or the mode in which the general soul incarnates itself in 
him. He inclines to do something which is easy to him, and good when 
it is done, but which no other man can do. He has no rival. For the 
more truly he consults his own powers, the more difference will his 
work exhibit from the work of any other. When he is true and faith- 
ful, his ambition is exactly proportioned to his powers. The height 
of the pinnacle is determined by the breadth of the base. Every man 
has this call of the power to do somewhat unique, and no man has any 
other call. The pretense that he has another call, a summons by 
name and personal election and outward 'signs that make him ex- 
traordinary, and not in the roll of common men,' is fanaticism, and 
betrays obtuseness to perceive that there is one mind in all the in- 
dividuals, and no respect of persons therein." * 

Exercises. — Make a sizable list of your adult acquaint- 
ances, including various vocational types, from the pro- 
fessional to the day laborer. How many of them seem to 
you to be doing the work for which they are best fitted by 
natural ability? If possible, find out by conference with 
them how many chose their vocations deliberately and 
thoughtfully. 

* Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essay on Spiritual Laws. Used by per- 
mission of Houghton Mifflin Company, publishers. 

307 



308 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

What constitutes the ideal vocation for any individual? 
How can he find out what it is? 

The meaning of vocation. — We should go to the Latin 
root of this word to discover its finest educational meaning : 
vocare means to call. One's vocation is his calling, the call 
of heredity, of brain and blood, of instinct, of the best 
ability with which he is blest. A man's vocation is his 
work; his avocation is his play. "Vocation" should not be 
restricted to handwork or industrial pursuits, making vo- 
cational education mean merely the training of manual 
laborers. Vocation is life purpose, that for which one is born 
and for which he comes into the world; for every man's 
work is born with him. It is that pursuit, mental or manual, 
which becomes so dear that all distinction between work 
and play vanishes; we are ever at play at our work, and a 
busy life becomes a ceaseless vacation. 

Two social extremes, tramps and the idle rich, foolishly 
doom themselves to a life of dull and incessant labor in the 
effort to do nothing continuously. But if there really are 
any vocationless individuals, they are like the useless zeros 
on the wrong side of the decimal point, negligible. 

In a large sense, then, all studies are vocational studies, 
all education vocational education. The big things for us 
to accomplish for every child are (i) to discover, first in a 
general way and later more minutely and accurately, what 
kind of working force he is likely to be in the world, what 
vocation he should follow; and (2) to enable him to perform 
most effectively the service he is born to give. 

The need for vocational education. — In American peda- 
gogy it has become trite to point out that home and shop 
are not doing so much as they once did in the way of train- 
ing our youth in various lines of apprenticeship. It is also 



VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 309 

trite to state that a large proportion of our pupils leave 
school just as early as the law allows. But this combination 
of unhappy conditions is as evil as it is old. 

The Massachusetts Commission on Industrial and Tech- 
nical Education investigated three thousand families whose 
children had left school to work. Two thirds of these fami- 
lies were found able to have, kept their children in school, 
and about two thirds of the children were found in industries 
of low grade. They had not learned a trade, but had shifted 
from one temporary job to another, arriving nowhere in 
particular. 

It is evident that great social waste and great personal 
unhappiness must result from the fact that multitudes 
blunder into the wrong vocation, or none at all, and find 
themselves, in the most energetic years of young manhood 
or womanhood, hopelessly floundering when they ought 
to be prospering. As Parsons put it: "A man would not 
get good results by using his cow to draw his carriage and 
his horse for dairy purposes; yet the difference of adaptabil- 
ity in that case is no more emphatic than the differences 
in the aptitudes, capacities, powers, and adaptabilities of 
human beings. 

"We guide our boys and girls to some extent through 
school, then drop them into this complex world to sink or 
swim as the case may be. Yet there is no part of life where 
the need for guidance is more emphatic than in the transi- 
tion from school to work, — the choice of a vocation, ade- 
quate preparation for it, and the attainment of efficiency 
and success. The building of a career is quite as difficult 
a problem as the building of a house, yet few ever sit down 
with pencil and paper, with expert information and counsel, 
to plan a working career and deal with the life problem 



310 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

scientifically, as they would deal with the problem of 
building a house, taking the advice of an architect to help 
them." * 

Vocational guidance and vocational training. — To stop 
this personal ruin and social waste it is necessary (i) that 
each be placed at the post where he can serve most usefully 
and happily, and (2) that each shall receive such education 
as will render him efficient to the limit of his man power. 
If we had a small fighting force in a dangerous position, or 
a limited crew on a large vessel in a storm, we should appre- 
ciate most intensely this necessity for maximal individual 
service. Society is large; its needs are less evident; but 
they are no less real. 

To steer each child ultimately into his own appropriate 
calling requires vocational guidance; to enable him to re- 
spond effectively to his call demands vocational training, 
or education. The first points him to the right road; the 
second furnishes him the means of travel. But guidance 
and training go on together; vocation-finding usually re- 
quires a certain amount of experimentation, of trial, re- 
jection, acceptance. While the youth is learning what to 
do, he is also learning how to do it. 

Demands of vocational guidance.— Vocational guidance 
requires (1) minute insight into the character and abilities 
of the candidate, (2) a broad outlook over the field of pro- 
fessions, occupations, "jobs," and (3) placement of the 
candidate (when prepared) in the most suitable position, 
with such after attention as may be required to insure per- 
manence of placement, or to remedy occasional inevitable 
misplacements. 

* Frank Parsons, Choosing a Vocation, p. 4. Used by permission 
of Houghton Mifflin Company, publishers. 



VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 311 

The first two requirements make our efforts seem hope- 
less. No way of making a complete inventory of a human 
personality has ever been discovered. While there are 
bookfuls of tests, and certain among us seem to take a tor- 
turer's delight in adding new ones to the medley, yet the 
number of such tests that have shown practical value is 
discouragingly small. Moreover, the most successful and 
valuable tests, such as those for sight and hearing and 
speed of movement, represent rather the simple, blunt 
procedure of plain common sense than the elaborate con- 
coctions of intricate psychological science. Vocational 
counselors and others who must perform human analysis 
for practical and comprehensive purposes have not taken 
kindly to the complex psychological tests. 

The second essential, that we take in the whole sweep of 
the possible vocations, halts our enthusiasm when we re- 
member that there are more than nine thousand vocations 
in this country. Moreover, each of these callings must be 
analyzed into its elemental vocational requirements, that 
we may compare these with the abilities of the candidate 
and find whether he fits. Here is an analysis which may 
tax our powers as much as does that of the candidate. 

Candidates for positions, or positions for candidates? — 
In the first place, as Ayres points out (in the article named 
in the References below), the selection of candidates for 
positions is much simpler than the selection of positions for 
candidates. In the first case we have to analyze the de- 
mands of one vocation only, instead of all vocations; and 
we test the individual for a few abilities only, those de- 
manded by this particular business, instead of making an 
inventory of the whole range of his powers and aptitudes. 

One of the most notable cases (quoted by Ayres) of find- 



312 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

ing people for a position was the work of Mr. S. E. Thomp- 
son, who used reaction-time tests in selecting girls for the 
work of inspecting for flaws the steel balls used in ball bear- 
ings. This work required quick and keen perception, ac- 
companied by quick, responsive action. Mr. Thompson 
measured the reaction time of all the girls and eliminated 
those who showed a long time between stimulus and reac- 
tion. The result was that thirty-five girls did the work 
formerly done by one hundred and twenty; the accuracy 
of the work was increased by 66 per cent; the wages of the 
girls were doubled, the working day decreased, and the 
profit of the factory increased. 

But our task as teachers is more complex; we must not 
merely select a few for a special purpose, but we must guide 
every maturing young citizen into his best possible future. 
Here the suggestions of the practical vocational counselor 
have special value. 

Parsons' method of studying candidates. — Parsons, the 
founder of vocational guidance, gives the following outline 
of his method.* It deals with the outlook on the vocational 
field, as well as with the study of the candidate. 

I. Personal Data. 

A careful statement, on paper, of the principal facts about 
the person, bringing out particularly every fact that has a 
bearing on the vocational problem. 
II. Self -analysis. 

A self-examination, on paper, done in private, under in- 
structions of the counselor, developing specially every tend- 
ency and interest that should affect the choice of a life work. 
III. The Person's own Choice and Decision. 

In a great majority of cases this will show itself in a marked 



* Frank Parsons, Choosing a Vocation, Ch. V. Used by permission 
of Houghton Mifflin Company, publishers. 



VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 313 

degree before the work under I and II is finished. It must 
always be borne in mind that the choice of a vocation should 
be made by each person for himself rather than by anyone else 
for him. The counselor can only guide, correct, advise, assist 
the candidate in making his own final choice. 
IV. Counselor's Analysis. 

On the basis of the information obtained under I and II, so 
far as possible the counselor should test III by making an 
analysis under each of the following heads, seeking in every 
line for significance in the line of the main quest: 

1. Heredity and circumstance. 

2. Temperament and natural equipment. 

3. Face and character. 

4. Education and experience. 

5. Dominant interests. 

V. Outlook on the Vocational Field. 

One who would be a vocational counselor should familiarize 
himself in a high degree with industrial knowledge, and he will 
need some knowledge, as we have indicated in Part Three of 
this book, that is not at present easily obtained. Investiga- 
tions to be undertaken at once are: 

1. Lists and classifications of industries and vocations. 

2. The conditions of success in the various vocations. 

3. General information about industries, up-to-date, the 

kind that is found in current magazines and papers 
rather than in books. 

4. Apprenticeship systems now in practice. 

5. Vocational schools and courses available in your city and 

state. 

6. Employment agencies and opportunities. 

VI. Induction and Advice. 

This calls for clear thinking, logical reasoning, a careful, 
painstaking weighing of all the evidence, a broad-minded 
attitude toward the whole problem, tact, sympathy, wis- 
dom. 

VII. General Helpfulness in Fitting [the Candidate] into the Chosen 
Work. 



314 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

Advantages of the school in vocational guidance. — Vo- 
cational service should be one of the chief aims of the 
school; and the school should be the chief instrument of 
vocational direction. The great advantage enjoyed by the 
school over all other vocational agencies is its long term of 
intimacy with the child. It need not resort to snapshot 
and cross-section methods, for under its kindly penetrating 
gaze the child works and plays for years, revealing his in- 
most nature freely and fully. 

By increasing its working force somewhat, the school 
can learn the family history and the hereditary vocations, 
as one might almost call them ; can see the panoramic per- 
spective of ancestry. It can gather at first hand the signifi- 
cant facts of the child's development, note his successive 
vocational enthusiasms as they flame and fade, until at 
length comes the abiding desire for one pursuit. 

One especial advantage is that in many, if not in most 
localities, our pupils can be brought into contact with nu- 
merous vocations, and can see their practitioners in action. 

"Why will a child desert his play 

The craftsman's work to see? 
Something within him, latent still, 
Stirs at each stroke of strength or skill, 

Whisp'ring, ' Work waits for me!' " * 

It is profoundly meaningful when one kind of work attracts, 
while all others appear, in contrast, less desirable. 

Finally, the school can judge of character, health, mental 
traits, general vocational bias, by actual trial. The knowl- 
edge side of many vocations is already in our curriculums, 
and practice is rapidly being added. Where electives are 

* Froebel: Eliot's Translation. 



VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 315 

permitted, and to some extent even where they are not, 
the school becomes a vocational laboratory; here the pupil 
can make his mistakes and get training in choice; it will 
prevent more costly blundering after school days are over. 

The vocational counselor.— We cannot expect each 
teacher to know the whole vocational field. We can expect 
her to give valuable personal information, of the kind indi- 
cated above, concerning the pupils she teaches. For the 
rest we must depend on the vocational counselor, an officer 
who should be found in every school system. From him we 
can expect the broad social outlook, the knowledge of vo- 
cational conditions, the information concerning school 
courses and other means of preparation, which are essential 
to the placement of our young people. 

The work as carried out in Boston. — Boston is the home 
of the pioneer vocational movement. The work, as carried 
on in the public schools of that city, includes the fol- 
lowing: 

1. Arousing general interest through lectures, literature, 
etc. 

2. A vocational counselor, or committee of them, for 
each school. 

3. A vocational card record of each elementary school 
graduate, which is sent to the high school at the time of such 
graduate's entrance there. 

4. Vocational lectures before classes about to graduate 
from the elementary school, followed by talks given by the 
teachers. 

5. Philanthropic individuals and societies interested. 

6. Vocational libraries established in the schools. 

The three aims kept most prominently in mind are (1) 
to make parents, pupils, and teachers all realize the impor- 



3i6 THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING 

tance of the life-career motive; (2) to place every pupil, 
when he leaves school, in some remunerative position; and 
(3) to keep in touch with those who are placed, suggesting 
means of improvement and ways of advancement. 

Mass meetings are held, and the vocational counselors 
form a working organization. Handbooks are issued, giv- 
ing the main facts about various vocations. A special course 
has been established for the training of counselors. 

But all of these measures are for the benefit of the boys 
mainly. The Girls' Trade Educational League cares for 
the interests of the girls, and the Women's Educational 
and Industrial Union conducts an appointment bureau 
for women. Another organization, the Home and School 
Association, makes a special effort to interest and enlighten 
parents along these lines. The city of Boston also conducts 
a municipal employment bureau. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1 . Tabulate the qualities which seem to you to be neces- 
sary in all vocations. 

2. Which do you think is more trustworthy, one's opinion 
about himself, or the estimate of others concerning him? 
Why? Does anything depend on the person? 

3. List the advantages and the dangers of following the 
vocation of one's father. 

4. If possible, have a psychologist give you a number of 
laboratory tests. Do you find that they teach you anything 
of importance which you did not know before concerning 
yourself? 

5. Do you know what a close scrutiny of the educational 
field reveals as to the possibilities in teaching? Is the pro- 
fession overcrowded? Are salaries likely to go up or down? 
What are the opportunities for really large service? 



VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 317 

6. Do you know how much better your opportunities 
will be if you specialize in some particular line of teaching? 
How can you find out? 

7. Discuss matrimony as a vocation for women. Are all 
fit for it? 

8. What is the relation of correct vocational placement 
to morality? To social unrest? 

9. When all have become skilled in some vocation, how 
will "unskilled labor" be disposed of? What influence are 
inventions likely to have on this problem? 

REFERENCES 

Ayres, Leonard P., " Psychological Tests in Vocational Guid- 
ance; " Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. IV, No. 4 (April, 

1913)- 

Bloomfield, Meyer, The Vocational Guidance of Youth. 

Brewer, John M., and Kelly, Roy William, A Selected Criti- 
cal Bibliography of Vocational Guidance. 

Eliot, Charles William, The Value, during Education, of the 
Life-career Motive. Proceedings of N. E. A., 1910. 

, Education for Efficiency. 

Parsons, Frank, Choosing a Vocation. 

Snedden, David, The Problem of Vocational Education. 

Bulletins of the Girls' Trade Educational League, Boston. 

Vocational Education. (Published bi-monthly at Peoria, 111.) 

Vocations for Boys, Vocation Bureau, Boston. 



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Bagley, William Chandler, Classroom Management. The Mac- 
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Bagley, William Chandler, The Educative Process. The Mac- 
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Ball, W. W. Rouse, A Short Account of the History of Math- 
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Bancroft, Jessie Hubbell, School Gymnastics. D. C. Heath and 
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Barnes, Mary Sheldon, Studies in Historical Method. D. C. 
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Betts, George Herbert, The Mind and Its Education. D. Apple- 
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Binet, Alfred, Les idees modernes sur les enfants. Felix Alcan. 

Bloomfield, Meyer, The Vocational Guidance of Youth. Hough- 
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Bolton, Frederick Elmer, Principles of Education. Charles 
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Book, William Frederick, The Psychology of Skill. University 
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Boone, Richard Gause, Science of Education. Charles Scribner's 
Sons. 

Bourne, Henry E., Teaching of History and Civics. Longmans, 
Green and Company. 

319 



326 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Carpenter, G. R., Baker, F. T., and Scott, F. N., Teaching oj 
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Charters, W. W., Methods of Teaching. Row, Peterson and 
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Colvin, S. S., and Bagley, W. C, Human Behavior. The Mac- 
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Courtis, S. A., Courtis Tests in Arithmetic. (Obtained from the 
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Crane, Walter, Arts and Crafts Essays. Longmans, Green and 
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Davis, William Morris, Geographical Essays. Ginn and Com- 
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Dearborn, Walter Fenno, School and University Grades. Bul- 
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Dewey, John, Ethical Principles Underlying Education. Univer- 
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Dewey, John, How We Think. D. C. Heath and Company. 

Dewey, John, My Pedagogic Creed. A. Flanagan Company. 

Dexter, T. F. G., and Garlick, A. H., Psychology in the School- 
room. Longmans, Green and Company. 

Dodge, Richard Elwood, and Kirchwey, Clara Barbara, The 
Teaching of Geography in Elementary Schools. Rand, Mc- 
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Earhart, Lida B., Teaching Children to Study. Houghton 
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Eliot, Charles William, Educational Reform. The Century 
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Eliot, Charles William, Education for Efficiency. Houghton 
Mifflin Company. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 3 21 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Essays. Houghton Mifflin Company. 

Fitch, J. G., The Art of Questioning. A. Flanagan Company. 

Galton, Francis, Inquiries into Human Faculty. E. P. Dutton 
and Company. 

Geikie, Archibald, The Teaching of Geography. The Macmillan 
Company. 

Gilbert, Charles B., What Children Study and Why. Silver, 
Burdett and Company. 

Gordy, J. P., A Broader Elementary Education. Hinds, Hayden 
and Eldridge. 

Gulick, Luther Halsey, Physical Education by Muscular Exercise. 
P. Blakiston's Son and Company. 

Hall, G. Stanley, Adolescence. D. Appleton and Company. 

Hall, G. Stanley, Aspects of Child Life and Education. Ginn 
and Company. 

Hall, G. Stanley, Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene. 
D. Appleton and Company. 

Hamilton, Samuel, The Recitation. J. B. Lippincott Company. 

Hanus, Paul H., Beginnings in Industrial Education. Houghton 
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Hanus, Paul H., Educational Aims and Educational Values. 
The Macmillan Company. 

Hanus, Paul H., Geometry in the Grammar School. D. C. Heath 
and Company. 

Hinsdale, B. A., How to Study and Teach History. D. Appleton 
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Hinsdale, B. A., Teaching the Language Arts. D. Appleton and 
Company. 

Hinsdale, B. A., The Art of Study. American Book Company. 
Science and Art of Teaching — 21 



322 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Home, Herman Harrell, Psychological Principles of Education. 
The Macmillan Company. 

Hunt, E., Concrete Geometry for Grammar Schools. D. C. Heath 
and Company. 

Hunt, Una, Una Mary: The Inner Life of a Child. Charles 
Scribner's Sons. 

Huxley, Thomas Henry, Science and Education. D. Appleton 
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James, William, Principles of Psychology. Henry Holt and 
Company. 

James, William, Talks to Teachers. Henry Holt and Company. 

Jevons, W. Stanley, Elementary Lessons in Logic. The Mac- 
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Johnson, George Ellsworth, Education by Plays and Games. 
Ginn and Company. 

Klapper, Paul, Principles of Educational Practice. D. Appleton 
and Company. 

Langlois, Ch. V., and Seignobos, Ch., Introduction to the Study 
of History. (Translated by G. G. Berry.) Henry Holt and 
Company. 

Lincoln, Lillian L, Everyday Pedagogy. Ginn and Company. 

McCurdy, James Huff, Bibliography of Physical Training. G. E. 
Stechert and Company. 

McMurry, Charles A., Special Method in Elementary Science. 
The Macmillan Company. 

McMurry, F. M., How to Study. Houghton Mifflin Company. 

Mero, Everett B., American Playgrounds. Baker and Taylor 
Company. 

Mill, John Stuart, A System of Logic. Harper and Brothers. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 323 

Mosso, Angelo, Psychic Processes and Muscular Exercise. Clark 
University Decennial Celebration Volume, 1899. 

Munroe, Paul, Cyclopedia of Education. The Macmillan Com- 
pany. 

O'Shea, M. V., Education as Adjustment. Longmans, Green 
and Company, 

Palmer, George Herbert, Self-cultivation in English. T. Y. 
Crowell and Company. 

Parker, Francis W., How to Study Geography. D. Appleton and 
Company. 

Parker, Samuel Chester, Methods of Teaching in High Schools, 
Ginn and Company. 

Parsons, Frank, Choosing a Vocation. Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany. 

Pyle, William Henry, Outlines of Educational Psychology. War- 
wick and York. 

Rapeer, Louis W. (Editor), Educational Hygiene. Charles 
Scribner's Sons. 

Read, Melbourne Stuart, An Introductory Psychology. Ginn and 
Company. 

Rugh, Charles Edward, Moral Training in the Public Schools. 
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Rusk, Robert R., Introduction to Experimental Education. Long- 
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Sargent, Dudley A., Health, Strength, and Power. H. M. Cald- 
well Company. 

Sargent, Dudley A., Physical Education. Ginn and Company. 

Schaeffer, Nathan C, Thinking and Learning to Think. J. B, 
Lippincott Company. 



324 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Schmucker, Samuel Christian, The Study of Nature. J. B. 
Lippincott Company. 

Scott, Colin A., Social Education. Ginn and Company. 

Smith, David Eugene, The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics. 
The Macmillan Company. 

Snedden, David, The Problem of Vocational Education. Hough- 
ton Mifflin Company. 

Spencer, Herbert, Education. D. Appleton and Company. 

Spiller, Gustav, Report on Moral Instruction and on Moral 
Training in the Schools of Eighteen Centuries. 

Stoner, Winifred Sackville, Natural Education. Bobbs-Merrill 
Company. 

Strayer, George Drayton, Brief Course in the Teaching Process. 
The Macmillan Company. 

Suzzalo, Henry, The Teaching of Primary Arithmetic. Teachers 
College. 

Swift, E. J. Mind in the Making. Charles Scribner's Sons. 

Thorndike, Edward L., Education. The Macmillan Company. 

Thorndike, Edward L., Educational Psychology. Teachers 
College. 

Thorndike, Edward L., Mental and Social Measurements. 
Teachers College. 

Thorndike, Edward L., Principles of Teaching. A. G. Seiler. 

Titchener, Edward Bradford, Lectures on the Elementary Psychol- 
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Titchener, Edward Bradford, Primer of Psychology. The Mac- 
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Tompkins, Arnold, Science of Discourse. Ginn and Company. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 325 

Tracy, Frederick, and Stimfl, Joseph, The Psychology of Child- 
hood. D. C. Heath and Company. 

Whipple, Guy Montrose, Manual of Mental and Physical Tests. 
Warwick and York. 

White, Emerson E., Examinations and Promotions in Graded 
Schools. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 

White, Emerson E., The Art of Teaching. American Book 
Company. 

Yerkes, Robert M., Introduction to Psychology. Henry Holt and 
Company. 

Young, J. W. A., The Teaching of Mathematics in the Elementary 
School and the Secondary School. Longmans, Green and 
Company. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Ability, 158 

Analysis and synthesis, 173 
Angell, James Rowland, 134 
Answers by pupils, 186 
Apperception, 83 

in teaching, 85 
Appreciation, 177 

lesson for, 166 

literature cultivates, 289 

plan of lesson for, 195 
Arithmetic, psychology of, 258 
Art, 274-284 

educational value of, 277 

method of teaching, 281 

nature of, 280 

of conduct, 302 

of remembering, 95 

of teaching, 22-28 

subject matter of, 280 
Assignment of lessons, 205 
Association, 65, 78-90, 92 

laws of, 80 

machinery of, 79 
Attainment, grades of, 221 
Attention, controlling, 124 

and interest, 124 

nature of, 124 



Attitude, toward class, 182 

toward teaching, 11-20 
Axioms for the teacher, 30 
Ayres, L. P., 311, 312 

Bagley, William Chandler, 218 
Behavior, levels of, 129 

high-level, 132 

low-level, 130 

mid-level, 131 

moral, 297 
Betts, G. H., 91, 94 
Binet, Alfred, 220 
Body, using the, 128 
Book, W. F., 138, 146, 147 
Books, and education, 202 

substitute for teacher, 203 

use of, 202, 209 
Boston, vocational movement in, 

3i5 
Brain-set, law of, 81, 94, 95, 124 
Branches, essential, 236 

Calling on pupils, 185 

Child, and the curriculum, 233 

defective, 71 

imagination of, 102 



329 



330 INDEX 

Child, memory of, 99 

physical education for, 54 

poverty of mind of, 68 

teacher should know, 31 

thinking of, 112 

useful to whom, 38 
Civics, 271 
Colvin, S. S., 218 
"Complete living," 41 
Concentration, 209 
Concepts, 109, no 

steps in forming, no 
Conduct, scientific basis for, 297 
Consciousness, levels of, 129 
Constructiveness, 141 
Courtis, S. A., 218 
Crane, Walter, 274 
Culture through vocation, 279 
Curiosity, 141 
Curriculum, the, 32, 232 

as preparation for future, 23s 

material for, 233 

Davenport, C. B., 299, 300 
Dearborn, W. F., 221 
Defective children, 71 
Definitions, 11 1 
Development, relation between 

muscular and nervous, 49 
Dewey, John, 227 
Dexter, T. F. G., 68 
Discipline, formal, 148 



Drill, 169 

plan of lesson for, 197 
Drilling for skill, 195 

Education, an art, 25 

an approximate science, 23 

as change for the better, 37 

as preparation, 42, 43 

books and, 202 

its relation to other sciences, 25 

kinds of, 39 

moral, 40, 297-306 

physical, 39, 47-58 

science of, 23 

scientific spirit in, 19 

vocational, 40, 307-317 
Effort, measuring, 218 
Eliot, Charles W., it, 36, 227 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 297, 307 
Empiricism, 240 
Environment, 60 
Examination questions, kinds of, 
182 

purpose of, 181 

qualities of good, 182 

to be avoided, 184 
Examinations, 177 

as means of measuring, 216 

sample questions for, 199 
Exercises, 11, 22, 29, 36, 47, 59, 
68, 78,91, 105, 117, 128, 138, 
157, 166, 180, 190, 202, 212, 



INDEX 



Exercises, 227, 239, 250, 262, 275, 

285, 297, 307 
Expression, value of, 142 
Expressive learning, 142 

Fatigue, 149 

Feeling, 65, 117 

culture and control of, 119 
its influence on learning, 146 

Feelings, educating the, n 7-1 27 
their place in teaching, 118 

Fernald, W. E., 215 

Fitch, J. G., 186 

Formal discipline, 148 

Frequency, law of, 80, 94, 124, 

125 
Froebel, F., 314 

Games, 54, 55 
Garlick, A. H., 68 
Generalizing, 162 
Geography, 32, 247 
Goodness, 302 
Gordy, J. P., 252 
Graphometer, 220 
Gulick, L. H., 50, 52 
Gymnastics, educational, 51 

Habit, 143, 303 

and memory, 97 
Hall, G. Stanley, 69, 234 
Helps, student, 210 



Heredity, 83, 87, 131, 138, 299 
Hero worship, 139 
Hillegas's composition scale, 220 
Hinsdale, B. A., 285 
History, 261-273 

as a science, 262 

as reconstruction of the past, 
263 

educational value of, 266 

method in, 270 

psychology of, 267 

review of, 198 

social value of, 265 

subject matter of, 268 
Houdin, Robert, 75 
Hubbard, Elbert, 168 
Hunt, Una, 112 
Hygiene and physiology, 245 
Hypothesis, 162 

Idea, perception and, 63 

Ideal, the educational, $3, 36-44 

of life, 43 

teacher should know, 33 
Ideas, 63 

clearness of, 109 

composition of, 64, 65 

forming clear, 109 

making of, 65 
Imagination, nature of, 100 

culture of, 101, 102 

laws of, 101 



332 INDEX 

Imagination, limitations of, 101 

of the child, 102 

rules for culture of, 102 
Imagining, remembering and, 91- 

104 
Imitation, 141 

learning by, 135 
Impression, 70 
Individuality, 24, 31, 38, 54, 190, 

233, 300 
Information, lesson for, 158, 160 

plan of lesson for, 192 

steps in lesson for, 161 

testing, 176 
Intensity, law of, 81, 94, 95, 124 
Interest, 124 



James, William, 59, 71, 78, 128, 

303 
Jevons, W. S., 22 

Knowledge, branches of, 230 
evaluation of, 241 
kinds of, 240 
locative, 159 

Labor and capital, 278 
Landon, Joseph, 29, 190 
Langlois, C. V., 261, 265, 270 
Language, 285-293 

as educational material, 287 

method in, 290 



Language, nature of, 286 

social value of, 286 

subject matter, 288 
Learning, 100, 128 

curve of, 146 

expressive, 142 

high-level, 135 

levels of, 128-137, 133 

low-level, 133 

mid-level, 134 

motives for, 138 

process, 138-154 
Lesson, assignment of, 205 

for appreciation, 166, 195 

for information, 160 

for skill, 169 

for thought, 193 

kinds of, 157-179 

plan, purpose, and value of, 190 

plan, what it should include, 
191 

planning the, 190-201 
Lessons, perception, 74 
Levels of behavior, 129 

of consciousness, 129 

of learning, 128-137 
Lincoln, Lillian I., 71 
Literature, 289 

Marking a class, 220, 221 
Mathematics, 250-260 
educational value of, 251 






INDEX 



333 



Mathematics, general method in, 

255 

nature of, 251 

subject matter, 253 

value to world of, 250 
Maxwell, William H., 250 
McMurry, C. A., 239 
Measurement, pedagogical, 212- 
223 

as a means to progress, 212 

by the teacher, 213 

essentials of, 214 

nature of, 214 

practical problem in, 216 

standards, 216 
Memorize, what to, 160 
Memory, 92, 93 

and learning, 100 

committing to, 160 

laws of, 94 . 

of the child, 99 

rules, 98 

specialized, 93, 94 
Mental material, collecting, 68- 

77 
combining, 78-90 
Method, and what determines 
it, 29-35 
common to all lessons, 171 
determined by child nature, 45 
in information lesson, 160 
in various lessons, 157 



Method, lecture, 174 

nature of, 29 

question, 174, 180 

scientific, 161 

subject matter and, 243 

topical, 174 
Mind, and environment, 60 

how it works, 59-67 

science of, 248 

the child's, 68 
Montessori, Madame, 233 
Moral education, 40, 297-306 
Mosso, Angelo, 50 
Motives for learning, 138 
Muscle and brain, 49 
Muscular development, 49 

Nature study, 244 

Objective and subjective, 61 
Objects, before words, 69 

lessons with, 74 
Oral and written work, 171 
Organization, school, 231 

Parsons, Frank, 310 
Perception, 63, 6$, 68-77 

and ideas, 63, 64, 91 

composition of, 64 

lessons in, 74 

with a purpose, 73 
Physical education, 36, 39, 47-58 



334 



INDEX 



Physical education, for children, 

54 

individuality in, 54 

order of development in, 50 

principles of, 52 

purpose of, 47 
Physical exercise, 52, 53 
Physiology, hygiene and, 245 
Plans for lessons, 190 
Plato, 186 
Play, 141 

and playgrounds, 56 
Practice, educational, 295 
Program of studies, 227-238 
Psychology, 59 

necessary for teacher, 59 

of arithmetic, 258 

of history teaching, 267 

practical value of, 246 
Pupils, calling on, 185 

teaching to study, 206 
Pyle, W. H., 151 

Questioning, 180-189 

importance of, 181 

law of recency in, 81, 94, 124 

purpose of, 181 
Questions to be avoided, 184 

Reformation, moral, 304 
Remembering, and imagining, 
91-104 



Remembering, the art of, 95 
Reviews, 175 

plans for, 198 
Royce, Josiah, 219 
Rusk, R. R., 47, 73, 96 

Sargent, Dudley A., 47 
Scale, composition, 220 
Schaeffer, Nathan C, 105 
School, and community, 305 

and vocational guidance, 313 

how organized, 231 
Science, 239-249 

aims of, 13 

and art of teaching, 22-28 

branches in elementary school, 
244 

exact and approximate, 22 

inductive and deductive, 240 

in the curriculum, 239 

key to success in, 12 

method of teaching, 16 

nature of, 239 

purpose in schools, 242 

value of, 241 

why successful, 13 
Sciences, mental and social, 248 
Scientific basis for conduct, 297 
Scientific method in thinking, 

17, 161 
Scientific spirit, n, 18 
Scott, C. A., 115, 157 



INDEX 



335 



Seignobos, Ch., 261, 265, 270 
Self-assertion, 139 
Self-consciousness, 123 
Self-education, teaching, 202-211 
Self-study, 32 
Sensation, 63 

types, 87 
Sense testing, 71 

training, 72 
Skill, acquisition of, 143 

drilling for, 195 

lesson for, 169 

testing, 176 
Society, and morality, 301 

obligation to, 41 
Spencer, Herbert, 241 
Strayer, G. D., 196 
Study, 204 

conditions for, 208 

for further, 20, 26, 33, 43, 56, 
66, 76, 88, 103, 115, 126, 136, 
152, 164, 178, 186, 200, 210, 
222, 237, 248, 259, 272, 283, 
292, 305, 316 

helps to, 210 

teaching pupils to, 206 

with the teacher, 204 
Subjective and objective, 61 
Subject matter, and method, 

243 
of history, 268 
Synthesis and analysis, 173 



Teacher, as vocational counselor, 

3i5 

axioms for the, 30 

method as related to the, 155 

should know self, 32 
Teaching, self-education, 202-2 it 

nature of, 9 

conditioned by subject matter, 
225 
Tests, 175 

for eye and ear, 72 
Thinking, 105-116 

how to stimulate, 163 

nature of, 105 

ordinary, 107 

plan of lesson for, 193 

school test of, 177 

steps in, 107 

training in, 113 
Thorndike, Edward L., 122, 149, 

202, 212 
Thought, devices for stimulating, 
163 

lesson for, 162 
Titchener, E. B., 117 
Types, sensation, 87 

Value, of art, 276 
of history, 265 
of language, 286 
of mathematics, 251 
of science, 241 



33^ 

Vessiot, translation from, 180 
Vocabulary, 75 
Vocation, meaning of, 308 
Vocational counselor, the teacher 

as, 315 
Vocational, education, 40, 307- 

3i7 
guidance, 313 

guidance and training in, 310 
Vocational movement in Boston, 

3i5 



INDEX 

Whipple, G. M., 71 
White, E. E., 171, 195 
Words, as signs, 70 

objects before, 69 
World, in program of studies, 228 

knowledge, 229 

pupil's place in, 235 

teacher must know, 31 
Writing, 172 
Written work, oral and, 171 



